Bibliometric Study of Articles Published in the Ethiopian Journal of Education 2006-2016

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to investigate the nature of researches published in the Ethiopian Journal of Education. This research has tried to portrait the journal and the dynamics it has passed through. It has employed a descriptive bibliometric quantitative content analysis. All the 98 articles published in the Ethiopian Journal of Education between 2006 and -2016 (volumes 26-36) were used as data sources. The data extracted from the articles was categorized based on the bibliometric indicators (measures) and were analyzed using frequencies and percentages. Findings showed that: (1) the Ethiopian journal of education did not show substantial change in productivity (2) gender gap in research was found to be high in favor of male. From the total number of articles only seven female researchers (7.14%) were first authors. This shows that educational research in Ethiopia is still male dominated endeavor. (3) The journal is dominated by the positivist orientation, quantitative approach. (4) About 40.81 percent of the articles were contributed by academics whose academic rank was assistant professor followed by researchers with the rank of lecturer accounting for 28.57 percent. (5) Foreign authors’ contribution was found to be very low- in eleven years time only four articles authors were foreigners (4.8 percent). Besides, research collaborations between Ethiopian and foreign academics are weak. (6) Researchers from Addis Ababa University have contributed 41 articles (41.83 percent) followed by researchers from Bahir Dar University that have contributed 20 articles (20.40 percent). Above 72 percent of the total articles published in the journal were from the two universities. (7) Coauthor ship is still weak, the majority of the articles (61.22 percent) are by individual researcher and 30.61 percent are by two or more researchers. Degree of collaboration index as measured by Subramanian index is. 39, which indicated, low degree of collaboration (8) In terms of the area (subfield) educational assessment, testing, and educational psychology dominates the Ethiopian Journal of Education with 30 articles (31.61 percent). The journals inclusiveness in terms of research approaches and designs and research areas it coves is still weak. With this, it is time to upgrade the journal to make it inclusive, and of better quality.