Indian Citation Index: a new web platform for measuring performance of Indian research periodicals

Abstract

PurposeWith a sustainable knowledge economy in the backdrop, India has seen an exponential growth of academic and sponsored research programmes across all major disciplines. There has been an exponential proliferation of Indian research journals to disseminate results of research carried out in India, by Indian researchers, from collaborative global research programmes. This paper aims to briefly describe a new initiative, the Indian Citation Index (ICI), which is a web‐based citation database of India‐based or India‐focused research journals.Design/methodology/approachThis paper gives a glimpse of the new ICI initiative. It briefly describes its promises and coverage. This paper is based on data available in the ICI portal and its information brochure.FindingsThe ICI has made an attempt to create a web‐based citation database covering a whole range of disciplines, i.e. sciences, technologies, social sciences and humanities. This paper also identifies similar initiatives in the past, which failed due to the absence of web technologies and web‐based business models.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper informs the availability of a web‐based ICI to a worldwide audience. Many in‐depth studies can now be undertaken to measure productivity of Indian research journals vis‐à‐vis Indian researchers using datasets of this citation database. Some studies can also be made to measure popularity of Indian journals amongst foreign researchers and foreign research collaborators.Social implicationsIf this initiative is successful, other countries will be inspired to have their own country‐specific citation database to measure performance of home‐grown research periodicals.Originality/valueThis is an informative news article to keep abreast of latest development of a country‐specific citation database.