Science in India: performance of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research laboratories based on the productivity profile of scientists

Abstract

Lotka's approach was used to study the performance of different Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) laboratories in physical, biological and engineering sciences based on the productivity profile of scientists. The productivity profile of each laboratory, in terms of frequency distribution of scientists and their contributions was generated using the CSIR Directory of Scientists. The profiles were normalised using Lotka's approach. The applicability of Lotka's inverse power law (general and square) and other statistical distributions to the productivity of CSIR scientists at the overall agency level, the group of laboratories level and the individual laboratory level, within each subject was examined. Scientists contributing ten or less papers give a flat productivity distribution; between 11 and 29 papers, tend towards an inverse-square relationship; and more than 29 papers, indicate a flat productivity distribution. A geometric distribution best describes the distribution of scientists at all three levels.