Bibliometric Analysis of Research Publications of the University of Dhaka during 1971-2021: A Study

Abstract

Abstract: Established in 1921, the University of Dhaka celebrated the 100 years of its establishment in 2021. As part of the celebration of this milestone, DU offered centennial research grants. The primary objectives of this project are to review the status of journals published by Dhaka University and examine and analyze the trend of scientific publications nationally and internationally for a period of 50 years from 1971 to 2021. We found that 13 faculties, 83 departments, 13 institutes and 56 research centers & bureaus of Dhaka University have published thirtynine journals from 1971 to 2021. Collectively these journals have published 9,378 scientific articles in fifty years. The average publication of the journal per year is 187.56. Among these only 1148 scientific articles are available online. The Dhaka University Studies (Faculty of Arts) has published the highest number of scientific articles (1504) in 46 years. Researchers from 61 countries have collaborated with DU researchers and published in the DU journals. None of these journals are indexed by the leading databases like Scopus and Web of Science. The findings of this study help us to come up with some recommendations. Department-wise journal publications should be stopped and only the leading faculties of DU can take the responsibility to publish few journals with maintaining the standard set by the flagship journals. While the recent moves of DU show a positive direction to improve the ranking of this university, materializing these recommendations will further improve the ranking of Dhaka University.