The Extent to Which Internet Resources are Used in Research Projects of the Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization

This research studied the usage of internet resources in research projects of the Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization during 2003-2004. Methodology - In this research the rate of citations made to information resources obtained through the internet was determined using citation analysis. Furthermore, the type of information resources used, such as essays, books and reports of research projects and also the year of using internet resources were surveyed for 1,700 research projects which had finished during 2003-2004. Findings – The research findings show that only 106 projects (6.2 percent) from all the research projects studied have internet citations. From a total of 2,716 citations in the 106 research projects, 229 were citations to internet resources (8.4 percent). The subject areas of projects with internet citations were also studied based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings List. The fields with the highest internet citations were pest, plant breeding and agronomy with 68.9 percent; soil and water and irrigation with 16 percent, botany 3.8 percent and fisheries 2.9 percent. Regarding the kind of internet resources cited, 31.9 percent of the researchers have only mentioned the main address of the website. 15.7 percent of the citations refer to articles, 4.4 percent to research projects, and 4.4 percent to books. In addition to the findings mentioned, the research centers with the highest number of citations referring to internet resources were also identified.