Feasibility Study of Using References Citation Network in Postgraduate Students’ Proposal for Suggesting Related Articles

The current study aims at determining the possibility of applying the citation network of the available references in postgraduate students’ research proposals for suggesting related articles.

As a quantitative and quasi-experimental research, 60 graduate students (30 MA and 30 Ph.D.) from Shiraz University, were purposefully selected and voluntarily participated in the study. The participants were students of different fields of study in the area of social science. The Web of Science Citation Indexing database, from which the source citation network was derived, was used in the study.

The findings showed that the frequency of the partially related articles was the highest among the three classes of articles (related, partially related, and unrelated). The results of the study also maintained the positive opinion of the users of the related articles suggested by reference citation network to be as effective. Comparing to the MA students, the Ph.D. candidates were also shown to consider the suggested articles to be more effective. That is, the PhD candidates regarded the suggested articles as more related. Moreover, participants with different levels of English language proficiency similarly assessed the relation of the suggested articles.

The findings of this study can provide information for researchers, research systems designers, scientific source and information retrieval system advisors and specialists in the related area about the way the proposals’ citation information can be used for finding relevant information and sources, and accordingly, enriching researches.