Background In many domains of knowledge, a vast amount of academic literature is available, resulting in dynamic shifts in the information demands of researchers in any subject. They require current data at a specific moment. Objectives The study’s goals were to determine how old papers are in the modern day, find out how many citations Indian academics often cite, and investigate which national and international publications Indian scholars prefer. Methodology Citation analysis methodologies were used to achieve the aims of the study. Findings The conclusions are based on a review of 18,638 references submitted to five of India’s leading LIS universities. According to a study, PhD level library and information science scholars mention on average 32-year-old materials, with 132.18 references cited on average in their thesis. Suggestions The researchers concluded that the study strongly advises that library and information science academics pay close attention to emerging or novel research ideas in the area rather than relying on well-established notions. Supervisors and LIS departments in India can realistically use these findings as a criterion to assess and even guide doctoral research methodologies. This insight could lead to new approaches to integrating more contemporary research and creative concepts into LIS doctoral work, which could influence research training and curriculum focus.
Singh et al. (2026) studied this question.