Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 22 Issue 4

journals in the Aesthetic studies undergraduate’s research activities. VI. M ethodology A descriptive survey method has been used for this study and observation (evaluating) the reference list has been used as the data collection instrument among the research reports submitted by the undergraduates in the year 2020/21 Swami Vipulananda Institute of Aesthetic Studies, Eastern University, Sri Lanka. The total number of submitted final year research reports in the year 2020/21 was hundred and ninety-eight. According to Barttett, Kotrlik and Higgiris (2001), 116 reports were selected as a sample from 198 reports. Submitted research reports are stratified according to their field of studies such as Music, Dance, Drama & Theater and Visual & Technological Arts. The Sample calculated is given in table 01. Table 01: Sample size by field of study Field of Study Total Population (Number of Project Reports submitted ) Sample Music 69 41 Dance 45 26 Drama & Theatre 33 19 Visual & Technological Arts 51 30 198 116 VII. R esults and D iscussion The survey investigated 2078 references referred to write the project reports; among them 314 (15.11%) references were referred from journals for writing their research reports. Comparatively, it is a lower percentage of the participants (usage). Therefore, overall, undergraduates’ usage level of journals for their research report writing was in need of improvement level table 02 indicates the details. Table 02: Overall Usage of Journals Total Number of Reference usage by Undergraduates The Information referred from Journals Percentage 2078 314 15.11% In-depth, a majority of the Undergraduates preferred to use print journals. Out of the respondents (complete references used from the journals), 74.52% used print journals. However, only 25.48% were used online journals. Therefore, a majority of the undergraduates at the institute used print journals for their research works. Furthermore, final year Undergraduates highlighted several reasons for their inability to access print and online journals. Limited abilities of Tamil language print Aesthetic journals in Sri Lanka, poor availability of opportunities for access to databases in the aesthetic field in Tamil are the primary and apparent reasons. Table 03 shows the details. Table 03: Overall usage of print and e-journals by Undergraduates Total Number of journals referred Print Journals Percentage e-Journals Percentage 314 234 74.52% 78 25.48 % Moreover, the study reveals the purpose level of usage journals of undergraduates by field of study. More than two-thirds of the respondents of music students (84.74%) used non-journals references to seek information for their research report writing. Therefore, only 15.26% of the music students used journals to seek information in depth out of the total journal usage by music undergraduates (116). Most of the respondents 73.27% (85) used print journals, but only 26.73% (31) used e-journals for their academic research writing. In this scenario, only 12.91% of dance undergraduates used journal articles to seek information and 10.25% of Visual Technological Arts undergraduates used journals for their research reports writing activities. However, ultimately 25% (24.59%) of the Derma and Theatre undergraduates used journal articles to seek information. The study reveals the print and e-journal usage of undergraduates. According to that, the majority of the Aesthetic studies undergraduates used print journals to seek information © 2022 Global Journals Volume XXII Issue IV Version I 59 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2022 G Journal Usage among Aesthetic Studies Undergraduates during the Preparation of Projects Reports