Electronic resources use and scholarly publications output of lecturers in federal universities in the North-Central, Nigeria

The study investigated e-resources use as a predictor of lecturers' scholarly publications output in federal universities in the North-central, Nigeria.A descriptive survey research design was adopted.The seven federal universities in North-central, Nigeria were enumerated with a population of 5185 lecturers.Stratified random sampling was used to select 60% of departments from each of the universities.Disproportionate stratified random sampling technique was used to select 1065 lecturers.E-resources use and scholarly publications output scales were adapted and adopted.Cronbach alpha was used to validate e-resources use and reliability coefficient of (=0.84) was obtained, while a test re-test analysis was carried out on scholarly publications output using Pearson's Product Moment Correlation analysis and the result yielded (r=0.75).These values were considered high enough for the reliability of the instruments.Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics such as frequencies counts, mean, standard deviation and inferential statistics such as Pearson's Product Moment Correlation analysis.The result established that e-resources use enabled the respondents to enrich research work with relevant information from other disciplines (59.3%) and frequently used e-resources were social networking sites (42.7%).E-resources use (r = 0.513 ** ; df = 1,020; P < 0.05) had significant relationship with scholarly publications output of lecturers in federal universities in North-central, Nigeria.Use of e-resources positively affected scholarly publications output of lecturers in federal universities in North-central, Nigeria.Thus, universities are encouraged to provide access to e-resources including online databases, digital libraries and academic databases to enhance efficient research and teaching among the lecturers.