National Mapping of Science - India: Multidisciplines*

Abstract

Attempts to provide detailed analysis of 10,103 and 11,314 Indian contributions covered by Science Citation Index database of 1990 and 1994 respectively. Of these contributions 1,013 and 1,382 respectively were published in Indian journals and the rest published in journals from US followed by those of UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Denmark, etc. The Indian contributions to journals publishing from US, Switzerland and Australia have increased during 1990 to 1994 and from the rest of the countries decreased. The contributions were found spread over high-, medium-, and low-impact journals. Of all the papers covered in both the years, those in chemistry were the highest (23.35% in 1990; 21.92 % in 1994), followed by physics (21.67% in 1990; 21.55% in 1994), clinical medicine (16.59% in 1990; 15.56%in 1994), biomedical research (8.70% in 1990: 10.17% in 1994), engineering and technology (7.00% in 1990 and 8.06% in 1994), etc. Among the contributors, the academic sector topped the list accounting for nearly half of the total output (53.81% in 1990 and 49.72% in 1994), followed by the central government and others. The states having the highest volume of published work as covered in the 1990 database, in decreasing order are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi with more than 1,000 papers each. These together account for over 50 per cent of India's output. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu take the fifth, sixth and seventh positions respectively. For 1994 also the position remains the same except for Tamil Nadu overtaking Andhra Pradesh to take the sixth position. An analysis of the contributions as covered in the 1994 database shows that Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore takes the top position in six disciplines, namely, chemistry, biomedical research, engineering & technology, computer & communication sciences, materials sciences; and multi-disciplinary category. The top position in six other major disciplines is taken by Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta in mathematics, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai in physics, Aligarh Muslim University in biology, National Institute of Oceanography in earth and space sciences , International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics, Hyderabad in agriculture and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi in clinical medicine. The 1990 and 1994 data shows that 13.2 % and 18.7% papers respectively are collaborative.

Methodology

The Indian contributions comprising research papers, short communications, etc. covered by the SCI were included in the study. The records thus selected, numbering over 20,000 were downloaded and converted into a database using FoxPro. Each record included details of author names, title of the contribution, name of the journal, document type (article, note, letter, abstract, etc.), author addresses, language of publication and references. To these, impact factor (IF) of the journal was added by collecting it from the Journal Citation Report (JCR) of 1994 and the country of publication of the journal from the Ulrich's International Periodicals Directory. The data was then cleaned up by removing inconsistencies in the names and addresses of institutions. It was found that a vast majority of the Indian contributions were papers/articles and notes. These articles were classified into 12 subject categories or groups based on the SCI Journals by Category classification . Then the data was analysed to get the number of contributions institution-wise, region/state-wise, subject or discipline-wise, to gauze the performance of the institutions and states. The aspects of collaboration patterns (in the authorship of contributions) between Indian and foreign authors and among the Indian states were also studied.

Analysis

The SCI database covered 10,103 and 11,314 Indian contributions in 1990 and 1994 respectively registering an increase of 12 per cent over these years. Of the 10,103 Indian papers covered by the 1990 database, 1,413 (13.99 per cent) were published in 12 Indian journals (SCI covers only 12 Indian journals since 1987) and of the 11,314 papers in 1994, only 1,382 (12.21 per cent) were in those journals showing a slight decrease. Of course, if all the Indian journals publishing Indian papers (including those not covered by SCI) are considered, one would obviously see a vast majority of Indian papers covered in them.

In terms of country-wise publication of Indian contributions (other than in India), as covered by the SCI database, the data shows that the highest number of Indian contributions are published in journals from US followed by those of UK, The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Australia, Denmark, etc. The following table gives the count of Indian contributions published by these countries.

Table 1 shows that the Indian contributions to journals publishing from US, Switzerland and Australia have increased during 1990 to 1994 and from the rest of the countries decreased. The increase in coverage in US journals is significant and the decrease in Hungarian journals is also noticeable. Overall, there has been an increase in Indian contributions in foreign journals.

The high impact foreign journals publishing Indian contributions are Journal of the American Chemical Society (IF 8.0), FASEB Journal (IF 15.1), Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry (IF 1.3), Theriogenology (IF 1.97), Lancet (IF 17.3), Journal of Biological Chemistry (IF 7.7), Journal of Chemical Information and Computer Science (IF 1.8), Computers and Chemistry (IF 1.4), Journal of Materials Research (IF 2), International Journal for Numerical Methods in Engineering (IF 1) and six multidisciplinary journals with IF ranging from 25.5 for Nature and 22.1 for Science, to 0.5 for Science Progress.

Subject-wise Contributions

The Indian contributions covered in the SCI database of 1990 and 1994 were classified into 11 disciplines and a multidisciplinary category. The analysis shows that of all the Indian papers covered in both the years, those in chemistry are the highest (23.35 per cent for 1990 and 21.92 per cent for 1994), followed by physics (21.67 per cent for 1990 and 21.55 per cent for 1994), clinical medicine (16.59; 1990 and 15.56; 1994), biomedical research (8.70; 1990 and 10.17; 1994), engineering and technology (7.00; 1990 and 8.06; 1994), etc. However, in materials science, in which Indian contributions to international journals are usually considered to be substantial, has only 3.37 per cent for 1990 and 3.32 for 1994. One reason for this could be that since materials science is a multidisciplinary field (overlapping with chemistry, metallurgy and to some extent physics), a number of papers in this field would have been classified under the overlapping disciplines.[Moreover, the world contribution in materials science itself is less compared to subjects like chemistry and physics, and Indian contribution is just a reflection of that. _ Editor.]

The analysis also presents the Indian output in different sub-disciplines as covered in the 1994 database and the increase or decrease in the output as compared to the 1990 database. From this it is seen that the highest output for 1994 was in general physics (560 papers out of the total 2,438 papers in physics covered in the database), followed by biochemistry and molecular biology (417 out of the total 3,036 papers in chemistry and biology), physical chemistry (372 out of the 2,480 in chemistry), botany and plant science (332 of the 556 in biology), etc.

In terms of the growth of the Indian contributions during 1990 to 1994, the highest growth rate occurred in the sub-discipline of interdisciplinary computer applications (700 per cent), followed by characterisation of materials (700 per cent), embryology (400 per cent), virology (325 per cent), nephrology (325 per cent), urology (233 per cent), and so on. On the other hand, the maximum decline during the period took place in the sub-discipline of agricultural economics and policy (- 75 per cent), psychology and behavioural science (- 75 per cent), and software and graphics (- 100 per cent).

In terms of Indian contributions to journals as per their impact factors (IFs), the analysis shows that Indian contributions were published in relatively higher impact journals in the disciplines or sub-disciplines of clinical medicine (IF 1.92), physics (IF 1.61), biomedical sciences (IF 1.58), biology (IF 1.43), and chemistry (IF 1.26). The contributions to other disciplines or sub-disciplines were in journals with IF less than 1.00.

Sectoral/Institution-wise Output

The various Indian institutions contributing to the S&T literature have been grouped into different sectors such as, (a) Central Government Sector (major S&T agencies and other agencies of the ministries and departments of the Government of India), (b) State Government Sector (S&T agencies and the departments of the state governments), (c) Academic Sector (universities, deemed universities, other institutions of higher learning, colleges, etc.), (d) Industrial Sector (public and private sector organisations), and health sector (hospitals and medical colleges).

The analysis shows that Academic Sector was by far the largest contributor accounting for nearly half of the total output (53.81 per cent for 1990 and 49.72 per cent for 1994). This was followed by the Central Government Sector with 34.44 per cent output for 1990 and 39.00 per cent for 1994. The Health Sector accounted for 5.36 per cent for 1990 and 4.54 per cent for 1994. The Industrial Sector accounted for 2.49 per cent for 1990 and 2.78 per cent for 1994. The contribution of the State Government Sector was only 0.66 per cent for 1990 and 0.69 per cent for 1994. The major scientific agencies (including the institutions under the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare) accounted for about one-third of the total output (32.83 per cent for 1990 and 33.38 for 1994). The institutions of the other Ministries and Departments of the Government of India accounted for 5.62 per cent (for 1994). Among the major scientific agencies, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) tops in the output with 1,233 (11.08 per cent) contributions for 1990 and 1,451 (10.94 per cent) contributions for 1994 closely followed by the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) with 918 (8.25 per cent) for 1990 and 1,170 (8.82 per cent) for 1994. The distant third and fourth are the Department of Science and Technology (DST) with 413 (3.71 per cent) for 1990 and 553 (4.17 per cent) for 1994 and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MHFW) with 460 (4.14 per cent) for 1990 and 493 (3.72 per cent) for 1994. Other scientific agencies are far below these agencies with less than two per cent for either of the two years.

In terms of the contributions to high impact journals, the analysis shows that the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) takes the top position for 1990 with an average IF of 7.514. Other Ministries/Departments of the Government of India (other than major scientific agencies) take the second position with an average IF of 6.931. The private addresses (non-institutional addresses) take the third position with an average IF of 5.978 followed by the Department of Atomic Energy (average IF 2.209), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (average IF 2.180), etc. For the year 1994 also the top position goes to the DBT (av. IF 2.929) followed by private addresses (av. IF 2.859), MHFW (av. IF 2.034), Health Sector (av. IF 1.835), etc. This indicates that private individuals and small private agencies which are usually not endowed with very good infrastructure and other facilities as available with the government agencies, did quite well as compared to the government agencies. On the other hand, the Academic Sector which is supposed to do original/fundamental research did not fare well in terms of their contributions to high impact journals as their average IF is less than 1.600 for both the years. The performance of the Industrial Sector is less than that of national average in terms of IF.

As per the performance of different sectors in different disciplines (in terms of the output of papers) the analysis shows that except for medicine, engineering, computers and materials science, the universities have the largest number of contributions in all the other disciplines. In medicine, the hospitals take the first position while the Other Academic Sector (other than universities, but including IITs, deemed universities, colleges, etc.) take the first position in engineering, computers and communication, and materials science.

In terms of impact factor (IF) the analysis shows that DAE has the highest impact in physics and the second highest impact in computers, engineering and biomedical research. The DST has the highest impact in chemistry and materials science. The DBT has the highest impact in biomedical research and agriculture and the second highest in medicine and biology. The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has the second highest rank by impact in materials science and third in engineering. The multi-disciplinary papers from MHFW have the highest impact (>10) followed by the medical sector and the private addresses.

State-wise Distribution

The states having the highest volume of published work as covered in the 1990 database, in decreasing order are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi with more than 1,000 papers each. These together account for over 50 per cent of India's output. Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu take the fifth, sixth and seventh positions respectively. For 1994 also the position remains the same except for Tamil Nadu overtaking Andhra Pradesh to take the sixth position. These seven states account for over 75 per cent of India's output.

The highest growth in publication output during 1990 to 1994 was in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra, whereas almost all northern states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir declined in terms of publications output. Other states that have shown an increase are Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.

In terms of discipline-wise output of different states, the analysis shows that relatively higher output in physics, chemistry, computers, engineering, biology and medicine is noted from Maharashtra, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Delhi. In agriculture, it is from Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, West Bengal, Delhi and Haryana. This situation is expected because of the location of a number of institutions working in these disciplines in these states.

Across the country, the maximum growth took place in physics (343 papers), followed by biomedical research (309), engineering (235), etc. Among the states, Tamil Nadu was growing in all areas except agriculture, while Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh declined in 7 to 8 out of 12 disciplines.

Maharashtra had the highest growth in physics (increase of 109 papers during the years 1990 to 1994) and geology (32 papers). Tamil Nadu had the highest growth in chemistry (87 papers) and medicine (60 papers), Delhi in biomedical research (63 papers) and mathematics (20 papers), Karnataka in engineering (49 papers), materials science (27 papers), agriculture (10 papers) and in contribution to multi-disciplinary journals. Computers, a relatively narrow discipline, appears to be growing in almost all the states, more significantly in West Bengal (18).

Decline in the literature output is observed in certain states. For example, literary output in clinical medicine declined in Chandigarh(- 52) and Maharashtra (-34); chemistry in Andhra Pradesh (-45) and Uttar Pradesh (-32); agriculture in Haryana (-32) and Uttar Pradesh (-32), physics in Uttar Pradesh (-23), and biology in West Bengal (-22) and Uttar Pradesh (-21).

The analysis also classifies the States according to the output and impact factor and the results are as in Table 2.

Institution-wise Distribution

More than 17,000 Indian addresses have been covered by the SCI database for the years 1990 and 1994. Of these, 98.8 per cent were institutional addresses and the rest were residential and individual addresses. The analysis shows, as could be expected, that the institutional output is highly skewed, a few major institutions contributing a large percentage of the output. It can be said that the activities of these institutions constitute the core of Indian science.

An analysis of the contributions of the top institutions in each of the 12 major disciplines, as covered in the 1994 database shows that Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore takes the top position in six disciplines, namely, chemistry (179 papers, 7.22 per cent of the total Indian output in this subject), biomedical research (92 papers; 8 per cent of the total output), engineering & technology (114; 12.5 per cent), computer & communication sciences (23; 17.6 per cent), materials sciences (56; 14.9 per cent) and multi-disciplinary category (61; 11 per cent). The top position in six other major disciplines is taken by the following institutes, i.e. Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Calcutta in mathematics (31 papers; 16.4 per cent of the total Indian output in this subject), Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Mumbai in physics (255 papers; 10.5 per cent), Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), Aligarh in biology (39 papers; 7 per cent), National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Goa in earth and space sciences (36 papers; 7.1 per cent), International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad in agriculture (37 papers; 13 per cent) and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi in clinical medicine (249 papers; 14.2 per cent). It is also seen that the top 20 institutions in each major discipline contribute between 50 to 90 per cent of the total output in that discipline. The contributions of the top 20 institutions in the 12 major disciplines are: 81.5 per cent in mathematics; 70.1 per cent in physics; 59.7 per cent in chemistry; 53.4 per cent in biology; 59.9 per cent in earth and space sciences; 76.1 per cent in agriculture; 69.6 per cent in clinical medicine; 59.3 per cent in biomedical research; 77.5 per cent in engineering and technology; 90.1 per cent in computer and communication sciences; 81.4 per cent in material sciences; and 50.3 per cent in multi-disciplinary category.

If the total output of the institutions (covering all disciplines) is considered, the top ten institutions as per the 1994 database are IISc (657 papers); Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai (429); TIFR (348); Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Varanasi (318); IIT, Delhi (275); IIT, Chennai (260); IIT, Kharagpur (230); National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune (226); Delhi University (DU), Delhi (219) and AIIMS (219). The top 50 institutions contributed 7,395 papers which is 65.4 per cent of the Indian output.

When the institutions are ranked considering both the output and the impact factor together, the top ranks in descending orders go to IISc; TIFR; NCL; AIIMS; IIT, Mumbai; IIT Kanpur; Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science (IACS), Calcutta; and Hyderabad University, Hyderbad. The institutions with high output but lower impact are BARC; BHU; IIT, Delhi; IIT, Chennai; IIT, Kharagpur; DU; Jadavpur University, Calcutta and Calcutta University, Calcutta.

Foreign Collaboration in Authorship

The study also measures the extent of collaboration of Indian scientific workers with foreigners in publishing papers. This may throw some light on the collaboration in scientific work between some of the Indian and foreign institutions and also on the cooperation at the level of the governments. Of the 10,103 papers of 1990, as many as 1,334 papers, or about 13.2 per cent were written each in collaboration with at least one author with a foreign address. Of the 11,314 papers of 1994, collaborative papers were 2,111 or about 18.7 per cent. Collaboration increased mainly with USA, France, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan, Germany and Italy. It is also observed that India had joint publications with 70 countries in 1990. By 1994, the number of collaborating countries increased to 93. The most frequent collaborators (with more than 100 joint papers each for 1990 and 1994) were USA, Germany and UK, in this order. Also, foreign collaboration increased during 1990 to 1994 proportionately in every discipline except in computers and engineering. The disciplines with the highest number of internationally co-authored papers for both the years are physics, clinical medicine, chemistry, and biomedical research. An observation of interest is that Indian authors have more collaboration with Germany than with UK despite the language barrier. As per the collaboration with the third world countries (excluding Australia), it is relatively the highest with Peoples' Republic of China with 19 papers for 1990 and 21 for 1994. With Bangladesh it is the next highest with 7 and 15 papers and with Pakistan it is 3 and 4 papers respectively for both the years.

Collaboration among Indian States

The study also analyses the collaboration among the Indian states. The study confirms that association between states and subject disciplines (or research fields) is not random. It also indicates that interstate cooperation increased during the period 1990 to 1994 and the states which did not have any collaboration (in authorship) in 1990, developed links in 1994.

* The paper is based on the report prepared under the National Mapping of Science Project. The coverage of Indian literature by SCI database is only partial. Hence, the conclusions drawn on the basis of the SCI data may not always reflect the real Indian scenario. - Editor

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Information Today & Tomorrow, Vol. 19, No. 3, September 2000, p.3-p.7
http://itt.nissat.tripod.com/itt20003/nmsmulti.htm