Mapping of Tuberculosis Research in India: A Scientometric Analysis of Publications Output during 1998–2009

Abstract

This study analyses the tuberculosis (TB) research output carried out in India during 1998–2009 on different 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 and by type of tuberculosis and patterns of research communication in most productive journals. SCOPUS Citation Database has been used to retrieve the data for 10 years (1998–2009) by searching the keywords (scroful* or mantou* or tubercul* or tubercle*) in its combined Title, and keywords fields. To compare the profile of Indian research output with China, South Africa and Brazil, the study downloaded the data on these countries using the Affiliation field of this database. India ranks at 3rd position among the top 21 countries and its global publication share (7.73%) is higher than China (2.93%), South Africa (2.60%) and Brazil (2.47%). But its average annual publication growth rate and international collaborative publication share is lower than these countries. Citation quality as reflected in citations per paper for South Africa and Brazil is found to be higher than India. Concludes that India needs to increase its output and bring about improvement in the quality of its research efforts. This can be done by investing much more in R&D expenditure, increase in the deployment of more qualified manpower and in increasing international collaboration and by modernizing and strengthening its research infrastructure.