Information literacy skills and research productivity of female academic staff in selected public universities in South-West, Nigeria

This study investigated information literacy skills and research productivity of female academic staff in selected public universities in South-West, Nigeria. Survey research design of correlative type was adopted, while purposive sampling technique was used to select six (6) universities. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select five hundred and thirty-six (536) female academic staff in the selected universities surveyed. A total of 536 copies of questionnaire were distributed and 413 copies were returned (77.1% response rate) and used for the study. Data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of frequency count and percentages, mean and standard deviation, while Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation was employed to analyze data to test the three hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that the information literacy skills of the surveyed female academic staff were at a moderate level (mean = 2.88), while the research productivity of female academic staff was low (mean = 3.15). The challenges faced by female academic staff in their research productivity included delays in the implementation of promotion and 358 (86.7%), inadequate funding 344 (83.3%), and heavy teaching loads 344 (83.3%). There is no relationship between information literacy skills and research productivity (r = - 0.035; p = 0.473). It is recommended that female academic staff ought to be encouraged to be information literate since some of them could have ideas to boost their research output and the administration of universities should be more receptive to initiatives promoting productivity in forms of publishing other than journal articles.