Retraction of scholarly publications ensures that unqualified knowledge is purged from the scientific community. However, there appears to be little understanding about how this is practiced among library and information science (LIS) journals. Hence, this study investigated the correction and retraction practices of LIS journals. Journals included in the Web of Science’s information science and library science subject category were selected for the study and the characteristics of the articles corrected or retracted in those journals between 1996 and 2016 were examined. Findings show that there were 517 corrections and five retractions in LIS journals during the period. Most of the corrections made to articles in LIS journals were minor while the reasons for article retraction included plagiarism, duplication, irreproducible results and methodological errors. Our findings also reveal that on average it took about 587 days for an article to be retracted while some of the retracted articles continued to be cited after retraction. The study concluded that the average number of errors per correction was lower than what had been observed in medical journals while some of the retracted articles continued to receive positive post-retraction citations. It also recommended the inclusion of a check on the validity of literature cited by authors at the review stage as part of the quality control mechanism by publishers of LIS journals.

Background: In Nigeria, most rural communities lack access to orthodox medical facilities despite an expansion of orthodox health care facilities and an increase in the number of orthodox health care providers. Over 90% of Nigerians in rural areas thus depend wholly or partly on traditional medicine. This situation has led to a call for the utilisation of Traditional medical practitioners in primary-healthcare delivery. Hence, the persistence of the knowledge of traditional medicine, especially in the rural communities where it is the only means of primary health care, has been a concern to information professionals.Objectives: This study investigated the role which the mode of transmission plays in the preservation of traditional medical knowledge.Method: A post-positivist methodology was adopted. A purposive sampling technique was used to select three communities from each of the six states in South-Western Nigeria. The snowball technique was used in selecting 228 traditional medical practitioners, whilst convenience sampling was adopted in selecting 529 apprentices and 120 children who were not learning the profession. A questionnaire with a five-point Likert scale, key-informant interviews and focus-group discussions were used to collect data. The quantitative data was analysed using descriptive statistics whilst qualitative data was analysed thematically.Results: The dominant mode of knowledge transmission was found to be oblique (66.5%) whilst vertical transmission (29.3%) and horizontal transmission (4.2%) occurred much less.Conclusion: Traditional medical knowledge is at risk of being lost in the study area because most of the apprentices were children from other parents, whereas most traditional medical practitioners preferred to transmit knowledge only to their children.

This study explored the information literacy of women on family planning in rural communities of Akinyele Local Government Area, Oyo state, Nigeria. Multistage sampling was adopted. Akinyele local government was divided into 12 wards and from these, six rural communities were purposively selected. Convenience sampling was used to select respondents, who were women within the reproductive age of 18–49 years. Focus group discussion was used to collect data from 78 respondents and interview from five key informants. The data collected in the Yoruba language were transcribed verbatim and translated to English. The collected data were analysed thematically. Findings showed some basic level of knowledge about family planning among the women, although the majority were yet to adopt family planning. Acquisition of family planning information was mainly through the radio and health centres, where available. Reasons for non-adoption included husbands’ disapproval and unavailability of health facilities as well as reported complications arising from use. There were no reported cases of enlightenment programmes by the government except in one of the communities, where such programmes were introduced but stopped. Provision of fully equipped and functioning health centres with well-trained health professionals is recommended to improve information literacy on family planning.

The study recommends inclusion of traditional medicine in the health policy and educational curriculum from the basic level.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors influencing use of the internet by students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and to establish the variation of this use by students' personal characteristics, and as a result to recommend improvements where necessary to the benefit of the student community. Design/methodology/approach -Participants are recruited through a random sampling technique, and data are collected from them using a questionnaire. A one-way analysis of variance is used for the analysis to uncover the variation of use across demographic and other factors. Findings -It is shown that students who communicate with varies significantly with age, gender and level of study while the various tools they use vary significantly with age, gender, faculty and level of study. Both younger users (,24 years) and older colleagues (.24 years) use chat rooms. Across gender, educational purpose dominates the use of the internet, but it varies with age, level of study and faculty. Higher educational level is associated with less use of the internet for leisure and entertainment. About 73 per cent of the respondents considers internet information as useful while much less than this (44.4 per cent) reported finding internet information as trustworthy.Research limitations/implications -A major limitation of this paper is that data are collected using only a questionnaire, whereas interview sessions would have uncovered more issues. Practical implications -Based on this result, this paper suggests discriminated internet education programmes and access by faculty, level of study and gender in order to maximise the use of the internet services by the students in the university. Originality/value -This study provides useful research information that can guide the university in fine-tuning its internet projects for optimal benefits of the student community. Other universities in similar situations in Africa as well as elsewhere can also benefit from the findings.