Mapping chemical science research in India: A bibliometric study

Abstract

Chemical sciences research in India has been mapped with data collected from the CD-ROM version of Chemistry Citation Index [publication year : 2002]. Roughly, 4.5% of the global R&D output in chemical sciences was contributed by Indian in 2002. Indian researchers published 6186 papers from 569 journals and 12 non-journal sources. More than 45% of these papers appeared in journals with an impact factor less than 1.000. Around 2% of the papers were either published in journals with no impact factor or not indexed in JCR 2003. The average impact factor for journal articles during this period is 1.359. While 26% of papers published by Indians were in US journals, the percentages for Indian and UK journals were 21 and 20%, respectively. Among Indian journals, the Asian Journal of Chemistry (IF 0.211) took the major chunk of 269 papers, while the Journal of Indian Chemical Society (IF 0.275) and the Indian Journal of Chemistry B (IF 0.492) carried 224 and 209 papers, respectively. In all, 563 institutions contributed 6199 papers in 2002. Of these papers, 68% were contributed by 10% of Indian institutions. The Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore ranks first with 345 papers. This is followed by the Indian Institute of Chemical Technology, Hyderabad with 263 papers. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai with 259 papers and the National Chemical Laboratory, Pune with 246 papers come in the third and fourth places, respectively. The largest contributions came from Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata. In terms of states, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal are major contributors. About 16% of the papers had international collaboration (with as many as 53 county ies). Major collaborating countries in chemical sciences were the US, Germany, Japan and Great Britain.