Trends, Growth and Gaps in Scholarly Collaboration: A 50-Year Bibliometric and Bibliographical Index of Agricultural Research Productivity

This study presents a bibliometric and bibliographical analysis of 1,148 articles by 43 scientists at the Institute of Agricultural Research and Training (IAR&T), Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, from 1970 to 2020. It examined authorship pattern-collaboration, subjects-year wise distribution, relative growth rate, and research doubling time. Results showed a significant rise in research output, with 67% of publications from 1995-2020, > 2 times the output from 1970-1994 (33%). Prominent subjects include Agricultural Extension (19%), Animal Science (17%), Food Science (14%) and Soil Science (10%). Findings reveal significant authorship collaborations and subject specific growth rates in Animal Science, Food Science, Soil Science and Agricultural Extension with 92, 68, 44, 41 frequency count respectively. Four-author articles dominates with (35%) of total authorship patterns. The study highlighted gaps in fields like Agricultural Engineering and Crop Physiology, emphasizing the need for more interdisciplinary collaboration and targeted resource allocation to underrepresented areas. Findings provide a foundation for future research directions and strategic planning.