Human Information Interaction

Background and Aim: The main objective of this research was to investigate the use of full-text databases in the LIS theses of Tehran State Universities within the years 2005 and 2009.

Method: For this purpose, the total of 9952 citations related to 172 existing theses in the academic central libraries were studied. The data collected were analyzed by the bibliometrics and citation analysis methods.

Results: The results showed that only 499 (5.01%) out of the total of 9952 citations were of full-text databases. By the use of Bradford law, the Emerald, Iran Doc. Pro Quest and Science Direct were chosen as the core databases in LIS. There was no statistically significance difference in the use of full-text databases with regard to database, university and subject. Citing the linguistic distribution of full-text data showed that most citations were in English language. Finally, the amount of the use of full-text databases by the theses has not been increased between the years 2005 and 2009.

Conclusion: The results obtained in the present research showed that the use of databases was very low and no growing trend for citing databases did   show.  Also English language was Dominant language in citing databases