FINDING THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN INFORMATION LITERACY AND RESEARCH PRODUCTIVITY: A SYSTEMATIC LITERATURE REVIEW

Abstract

      Purpose: The objective of this study was to analyze the published empirical research presenting the association of information literacy on the research productivity of professional groups (e.g. teachers, scientists, mathematicians, librarians etc.)

      Design/methodology/approach: The evidence based research was searched and retrieved by the researchers by using the 4 most relevant databases such as  SCOPUS, Library, Information Science and Technological Abstracts (LISTA), HEC Databases, Library and Information Science Abstracts (LISA), as well as one scholarly search engine Google Scholar and by accessing the official websites of two journals’ archival sections i.e. Journal of Information literacy and Library and Information Science Research. Literature was retrieved through the access of the Databases, provided by the central library of University of the Punjab, Lahore as well as the library of the University of Management & Technology Lahore.  The time span for the literature search of this study was August 2023 to December 2023. Search was refined in the month of April 2024.

      Findings: Findings revealed that majority of the studies were published by the authors of under developing countries (i.e. 75% from Nigeria, 19% by Pakistanis while 6% were produced by the authors of the United States), addressing the groups of academicians, doctoral research students, engineers, scientists, mathematicians and information professionals. This study has drawn the consensus upon the findings of analyzed studies that the information literacy (IL) has strong association with research productivity (RP).

      Originality/value: To the best of researchers’ knowledge, this is the first study of its nature that strives to collect and produce a systematic review of the literature based on empirical evidence of the significant role of information literacy/skills on the research productivity.