Epilepsy Research in India: A Scientometric Analysis of Publications Output during 2002-11.

Abstract

This study analyses the research output of India in epilepsy research during 2002-11 on several parameters including the growth, rank and global publications share, citation impact, share of international collaborative papers, contribution of major collaborative partner countries, contribution of various subject-fields, contribution and impact of most productive institutions and authors, media of communication and characteristics of high cited papers. The Scopus Citation Database has been used to retrieve the data for 10 years (2002-11) by searching the keywords "epilepsy research" in the combined Title, Abstract and Keywords fields. Among the top 20 most productive countries in epilepsy research, India ranks at 11(th) position (with 1550 papers) with a global publication share of 2.88% and an annual average publication growth rate of 15.31% during 2002-11. Its global publication share has increased over the years, rising from 2.06% in 2002 to 4.65% during 2011. Its citation impact per paper was 2.77 during 2002-11, which decreased from 3.48 during 2002-06 to 2.41 during 2007-11. Its international collaborative publications share was 12.32% during 2002-11, which decreased from 12.45% during 2002-06 to 12.26% during 2007-11. Concludes that India needs to increase both the quantity and quality of research and also the need to share research data and stimulate national and international collaborative research, which will increase both the quantity and quality of research in epilepsy. There is a need to develop a national program on epilepsy as a part of national health plan, besides suggesting the funding agencies to establish a more ambitious funding program into the causes, prevention, cure and care of epilepsy. There is a need to build capacity at all levels of human resources for the management of epilepsy.