Indian Scientific Output as seen through Indian Science Abstracts

 

 

K.C.Garg, Suresh Kumar and Bharvi Dutt

 

Indian Science Abstract (ISA), a semi-monthly abstracting periodical, started publishing in January 1965 by the erstwhile Indian National Scientific Documentation Centre (INSDOC), now National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR). ISA comprehensively abstracts the Indian S&T literature published in Indian S&T journals and is a leading abstracting service published from India. It is a multi-disciplinary database of science and technology and claims to scan about 800 journals. Abstracts in ISA are broadly classified according to Universal Decimal Classification (UDC) Scheme and arranged under UDC number (along with subject- headings).  The abstracts are grouped under 26 broad classes.

 

Why Indian Science Abstract

Numerous studies have been reported in literature on the assessment of Indian scientific output using Science Citation Index (SCI) or Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-E). The coverage of Indian science journals in SCI as well as SCI-E is quite less as compared to journals indexed by ISA. Thus, SCI or SCI-E does not reflect a complete picture of Indian scientific output. In view of this, it becomes imperative to examine the Indian scientific output using a more comprehensive database.  For these reasons, ISA is most suitable for assessing the Indian scientific output.

 

Methodology

Data was down loaded from the web-edition of ISA for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008 so as to include all those journals that are published behind schedule. The data so obtained was converted into a Fox-Pro database, using simple software techniques.  The records pertaining to 2006 were retained and the rest were deleted.  ISA also scans records relating to patents, theses and standards etc. which were also excluded. Records not concerned with science and technology, such as management, information science etc. were also excluded. The data so obtained was standardized for different institutions and journals as there is wide variation in their names. Names of funding agencies to which different institutions belonged were also added to the database. Data have been analyzed for distribution of output according to different agencies, institutions and disciplines. The journals where research results were published have also been identified.

 

Results

During 2006 ISA abstracted 18,224 articles from 445 journals published from India. These articles originated from 3,439 institutions located in different parts of the country. Of these, 548 articles were individual papers with residential address and 129 did not have any address at all. Details of the output are provided in the following paragraphs.

 

Distribution of output according to performing sectors

Bulk of funding to R&D in India comes from the central government. Scientific research is mainly performed at the universities and the institutes of higher learning, besides the government funded laboratories under the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE), Department of Space (DOS), Department of Science and Technology (DST), Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

Table 1 presents the data on the distribution of scientific output according to performing sectors. This indicates that academic institutions (universities and colleges) are the major contributors (~35%) of the total output. This is followed by output from State Agriculture Universities (SAUs) and medical colleges. These three sectors together contributed about 71% of the total output. Thus, almost three-forth of the research output came from these three sectors. Other sectors listed in Table 1 and contributing 1% or more of the output is from institutions under the aegis of ICAR, CSIR, State Governments, Ministry of Environment and Forests, DST and DAE. Contributions from engineering colleges including Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are also more than 1%. Contributions from DRDO, ICMR, and DOS are quite less.   

 

Table 1: Distribution of output according to performing sectors

Agency

Number of papers

% of papers

Academic Institutions

6,372

35.0

State Agriculture Universities

3,338

18.3

Medical colleges

3,185

17.5

Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR)

1,226

6.7

Engineering colleges including IITs

893

4.9

Council Of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

510

2.8

State Government Institutions

312

1.7

Ministry of Environment and Forests

222

1.2

Department of Science and Technology (DST)

211

1.2

Department of Atomic Energy (DAE)

185

1.0

Private sector industrial R&D units

674

3.7

Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO)

158

0.9

Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

121

0.7

Institutions under different economic ministries

306

1.7

Department of Space (DOS)

50

0.3

Individual and others

773

4.2

Total

18,224

100

 

 

Fig 1: Distribution of output according to performing sectors

 

Distribution of output according to prolific institutions

The total output came from 3,439 institutions located in different parts of the country. Of these, most prolific 50 institutions contributed 4,508 (~ 25%) of the total output and the remaining 2,894 institutions contributed 13,716 (~75%) publications including individuals and anonymous authors. The name of these institutions along with their output is given in Table 2. A glance at the institutions listed in Table 2 indicates that 21 of these institutions belonged to State Agriculture Universities, 13 to academic institutions, five each to medical and engineering colleges, four to Indian Council of Agriculture Research, one each to Department of Atomic Energy and Botanical Survey of India. Among the prolific institutions State Agriculture Universities contributed ~ 47% of the output originating from these institutions followed by academic institutions (~ 24%).     

 

Table 2: Distribution of output according to Institutions

S. No.

Institutions

Place

Papers

1

Punjab Agriculture University

Ludhiana

297

2

CCS Haryana Agricultural University

Hissar

261

3

Indian Agricultural Research Institute

New Delhi

214

4

Annamalai University

Annamalai

211

5

Tamilnadu Agriculture University

Chennai

204

6

All India Institute of Medical Sciences

New Delhi

174

7

Bidhan Chandra Krishi Vishwavidyalaya

Mohanpur

138

8

Chaudhary Sarwan Kumar Himachal Pradesh Krishi Vishvavidyalaya

Palampur

112

9

Indian Veterinary Research Institute

Izatnagar

106

10

G B Pant University of Agriculture and Technology

Pantnagar

103

11

Aligarh Muslim University

Aligarh

101

12

University of Agriculture Sciences

Dharwad

101

13

Andhra University

Visakhpatnam

96

14

University of Agriculture Sciences

Bangalore

95

15

University of Rajasthan

Jaipur

94

16

Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research

Chandigarh

89

17

Indian Institute of Science

Bangalore

86

18

Jadavpur University

Jadavpur

81

19

Mahatama Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth

Ahmednagar

79

20

National Dairy Research Institute

Karnal

77

21

Bhabha Atomic Research Centre

Mumbai

75

22

Indira Gandhi Agricultural University

Raipur

75

23

Dr.Y S Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry

Solan

71

24

Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishvavidyalaya

Jabalpur

71

25

Indian Institute of Technology

Delhi

70

26

Banaras Hindu University

Varanasi

69

27

Rajendra Agricultural University

Pusa

69

28

University of Mysore

Mysore

67

29

Indian Institute of Technology

Kharagpur

66

30

Chandra Shekhar Azad University of Agriculture and Technology

Kanpur

63

31

Indian Institute of Technology

Roorkee

61

32

ICAR Research Complex for North Eastern Hill Region

Shillong

60

33

Kakatiya University

Warangal

59

34

Sher-e Kashmir University of Agriculture Science & Technology

Jammu

59

35

Botanical Survey of India

Kolkatta

58

36

Osmania University

Hyderabad

58

37

Christian Medical College and Hospital

Vellore

57

38

College of Agriculture

Hyderabad

56

39

Narendra Dev University of Agriculture and Technology

Kumarganj

56

40

College of Agriculture,

Pantnagar

55

41

Acharya N G Ranga Agricultural University

Hyderabad

54

42

Jai Narain Vyas University

Jodhpur

54

43

Mahatama Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences

Sevagram

54

44

Nagpur University

Nagpur

54

45

Shere Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences

Srinagar

53

46

Delhi University

Delhi

51

47

Indian Institute of Technology

Mumbai

50

48

Indian Institute of Technology

Chennai

48

49

Madras Veterinary College

Chennai

48

50

Rajasthan college of Agriculture

Udaipur

48

 

Total

 

4,508

 

Others

 

13,716

 

Grand Total

 

18,224

 

 

Distribution of output according to disciplines

Scientific output from India in 2006 spread over 445 Indian journals covering a wide spectrum of subjects is presented in Table 3. Data presented in Table 3 indicates that medical science/veterinary medicine and agricultural sciences including forestry, animal husbandry and fisheries each contributed about one-fourth of the total output. Thus, these two disciplines together constitute about half of the total Indian output. Remaining half of the output is scatted among other 15 disciplines, among which chemistry, botany and engineering contributed more than 5% of the output.

 

Table 3: Distribution of output according to disciplines

S. NO.

Disciplines

Output

% of Output

1

Agriculture, Forestry, Animal husbandry, and Fisheries

4,821

26.4

2

Medical sciences and Veterinary medicine

4,765

26.1

3

Chemistry

1,365

7.5

4

Botany

1,167

6.4

5

Engineering

1,084

5.9

6

Biology

806

4.4

7

Zoology

792

4.3

8

Physics including Astronomy, Astrophysics, Space research & Geodesy

714

3.9

9

Mathematics

587

3.2

10

Environmental science, Nature and Wild life protection

620

3.4

11

Geology, Meteorology and Hydrology

573

3.1

12

Biotechnology

329

1.8

13

Chemical technology and Food technology

296

1.6

14

Leather, metal, paper & textile industries

165

0.9

15

Computer science and technology

85

0.5

16

Palaeontology and Fossils

31

0.2

17

Home science

14

0.1

 

 

Fig 2: Distribution of output according to disciplines.

 

Communication pattern

Analysis of the data indicates that 18224 papers appeared in 445 journals published from different parts of the country. Table 4 provides the list of 41 journal titles which published 100 or more papers. These 41titles published 6266 (34%) papers of the total output. However, two-third of the total output is concentrated in 119 titles. Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) indexed 58 titles published 4642 (25%) papers of the total output.

 

Table 4: Distribution of Indian S&T output in Indian journals

S. No

Journal

Place of Publication

# Of Papers

1

Current Science

Bangalore

425

2

Asian Journal of Chemistry

Ghaziabad

338

3

Indian Veterinary Journal

Chennai

335

4

Environment and Ecology

Kolkata

327

5

Asian Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Environmental Science

Aligarh

219

6

Indian Medical Journal

Kolkata

218

7

Plant Archives

Muzaffarnagar

194

8

Indian Journal of Experimental Biology

New Delhi

177

9

Antiseptic

Madurai

170

10

Indian Journal of Animal Sciences

New Delhi

170

11

Annals of Plant Protection Sciences

New Delhi

169

12

Journal of Economic and Taxonomic Botany

Jodhpur

167

13

Indian Journal of Chemistry - Sect B

New Delhi

164

14

Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Mumbai

137

15

Crop Research

Hissar

134

16

Indian Journal of Medical Research

New Delhi

124

17

Indian Forester

Dehradun

124

18

Indian Journal of Heterocyclic Chemistry

Lucknow

123

19

Acta Ciencia Indica - Mathematics

Meerut

120

20

Indian Journal of Physics

Kolkata

119

21

Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research

New Delhi

117

22

Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences

New Delhi

117

23

Obstetrics & Gynecology Today

New Delhi

116

24

International Journal of Agricultural Sciences

NA

115

25

Nature Environment and Pollution Technology

Jaipur

115

26

Journal of  the Geological Society of India

Kolkata

115

27

Journal of Aquatic Biology

Hyderabad

113

28

Pediatrics-Indian Edition

NA

112

29

Indian Journal of Chemistry - Sect A

New Delhi

112

30

Journal of Oilseeds Research

Hyderabad

111

31

Ultra Scientist of Physical Sciences

Bhopal

111

32

International Journal of Chemical Sciences

NA

111

33

Medical Journal Armed Forces India

Pune

110

34

Indian Journal of Entomology

New Delhi

107

35

Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics

New Delhi

107

36

Indian Journal of Biotechnology

New Delhi

106

37

Journal of Phytological Research

Bharatpur

105

38

Journal of the Indian Chemical Society

Jodhpur

105

39

Indian Journal of Otolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery

Kolkata

103

40

Ecology Environment and Conservation

Karad

103

41

Journal of Indian Medical Association

Kolkata

101

 

Total

 

6,266

 

Other 404 journals

 

11,958

 

Grand Total 445 Journals

 

18,224

 

 

 

 

Conclusion

During 2006 ISA published abstracts of 18,224 papers contributed by 3,439 institutions spread in 445 journals. Academic institutions contributed the highest number of publications followed by State Agriculture Universities and medical colleges. These three performing sectors account for 70% of the Indian output abstracted by ISA. Most prolific 41 journals published 34% of the total output. However, 119 journals account for 65% of the total Indian output in ISA. These observations must be taken into account while formulating initiatives to enhance the publication output of the Indian S&T system.

 

 

 

 

References:

 

 

 

 

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