Scholarly literature from selected universities of Delhi and Uttar Pradesh : a pilot study

Abstract

Abstract This study presents the publications output of the four most productive Indian academic institutions in the mainstream scientific literature for the eight-year-period 2000-2007. This paper discusses the distribution of publications by institution, type of publication, pattern of co-authorship, and citations. The results show that among the four universities, the authors of Delhi University contributed the highest number of articles, followed by Banaras Hindu University. There is also an increasing trend of collaborative research among Indian authors as well as more frequent collaboration with international authors. Biochemistry and molecular biology is one of the most prolific research areas in these four Indian universities. The average rate of references per item is 28 and the citations received per item are 3.56. Keywords: Scientific Research-India; University Productivity-India; Scholarly Literature-India. Introduction Historically, India has been one of the most prominent South Asian countries, owing to its global reputation for academic and research excellence. India has a large scientific establishment and publishes on average thirteen thousand research papers a year according to the Science Citation Index. The last few decades have witnessed a restructuring in scientific research in India. Modern information and communication technology (ICT) has acted as a catalyst in a paradigm shift in terms of quality and quantity of research. Now researchers in national institutions and universities in India have greater access to research literature due to subscriptions to many e-journals and scholarly databases in most subject areas. Government research agencies have introduced research fellowship opportunities for pursuing research degrees in order to attract talented students into research and teaching professions in India and to reverse the brain-drain to developed countries. At the same time, however, there continues to be extensive discussion regarding the perceived deficit in quantity, and possibly in quality, of research at the university level. One optimistic view explains the reason as lack of funds while others blame the lack of infrastructure. It is, therefore, important that a study be undertaken with the sole purpose of identifying the quality and quantity of research activity of well-funded Indian universities. Objective and Scope of the Study The purpose of this pilot study is to explore the main scientific output in order to measure the extent of scientific development in India. Specific objectives of the paper include: • to track the growth of publications from prominent Indian universities during 2000-2007. • To explore the type of publications in which authors have preferred to publish their work. • To determine the nature of collaborative research and the amount of international collaboration. • To know the amount of inter-university collaborative research. • To document the highly preferred journals and research subjects of published authors. • To discover the countries and institutions most involved in research collaboration with Indian scholars and researchers; and