Structure and evolution of Indian physics co-authorship networks

We trace the evolution of Indian physics community from 1919 to 2013 by analyzing the co-authorship network constructed from papers published by authors in India in American Physical Society (APS) journals. We make inferences on India’s contribution to different branches of Physics and identify the most influential Indian physicists at different time periods. The relative contribution of India to global physics publication (research) and its variation across subfields of physics is assessed. We extract the changing collaboration pattern of authors between Indian physicists through various network measures. We study the evolution of Indian physics communities and trace the mean life and stationarity of communities by size in different APS journals. We map the transition of authors between communities of different sizes from 1970 to 2013, capturing their birth, growth, merger and collapse. We find that Indian–Foreign collaborations are increasing at a faster pace compared to the Indian–Indian. We observe that the degree distribution of Indian collaboration networks follows the power law, with distinct patterns between Physical Review A, B and E, and high energy physics journals Physical Review C and D, and Physical Review Letters. In almost every measure, we observe strong structural differences between low-energy and high-energy physics journals.

     

Citation patterns of Korean physicists and mechanical engineers: Differences by type of publication source and type of authorship

By comparing the citation patterns of Korean researchers in physics and mechanical engineering, this study identifies the extent to which type of publication source (Korean non-SCI, Korean SCI, and international SCI) and type of authorship (purely Korean authors, Korean-foreign co-authors, and foreign-Korean co-authors) influence the choice of sources cited by Korean scientists. Koreans publishing physics or mechanical engineering papers in international SCI journals are more likely to cite articles published in journals of the science mainstream countries (the U.S., the U.K., the Netherlands, and Germany) than articles published in national journals, while Koreans publishing in Korean journals tend to cite articles published in national journals. In terms of authorship, articles published in mainstream journals are more highly cited by internationally co-authored papers than Korean-authored papers in both disciplines. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Physics 1800–1900: A quantitative outline

The authors utilize the index of theCatalogue of Scientific Papers of theRoyal Society of London dealing with the physics journal literature of the 19th century. Graphs of the publication activity of the entire 19th-century physics and of a bout 50 of its most important subareas are displayed; both the number of active contributors in each area, the number of papers and its share of publications of the entire 19th century physics are exhibited. Typical scientometric regularities such as “Lotka’s law” (with regard to the number of papers and the number of areas treated by physicists) are confirmed. In addition, the shares of the leading countries of important physical discoveries in the 19th century are studied.     

Publication practices in various sciences

From a study of Papers published in 1990 in major journals in eight sciences (astrophysics, biology, chemistry, geophysics, mathematics, physics, psychiatry, and radiology) we learn the following. The median numbers of authors per paper range from 1.0 (in mathematics) to 3.7 (in the medical fields). Only a few percent (0–5%) of the papers have more than eight authors. Nearly half (30–55%) of the papers in American journals are partly or totally from abroad, except in the medicinal fields (10%). The fractions of papers with authors from two or more countries are as high as 26% (in astrophysics and geophysics). Mean paper lengths range from 4.6 1000-word pages in the medical fields to 8–13 pages in the observational sciences (astrophysics, biology, geophysics) and mathematics. The fraction of papers revised range from 8% in mathematics to 100% in geophysics. The mean publication times (submission to publication) range from 200 days in physics to 600 days in mathematics.     

Authorship patterns in marine mammal science, 1985–1993

Authorship studies in such disciplines as physics and economics show that with the passage of time there has been an increase in the number of authors per paper, indicating a trend toward more collaboration. In this study, a search was run on the Aquatic Sciences and Fisheries Abstracts database to identify marine mammal science papers published from 1985 to 1993. A total of 1308 papers published in scientific journals was examined. There were weak but statistically significant trends in the increase in the number of authors per paper as well as in the number of multi-authored papers written by authors from different institutions, with the passage of time. Possible reasons for these results include the increasing specialization of researchers necessitating collaboration, more access to electronic means of communication, and more competition for research funds. Confounding factors in this analysis include the possibility that different journals have different publication patterns and regional vs. national/international journal differences.     

Mapping of Indian computer science research output, 1999�C2008

The research output of India in computer science during 1999?C2008 is analyzed in this paper on several parameters including total research output, its growth, rank and global publication share, citation impact, share of international collaborative papers and major collaborative partner countries and patterns of research communication in most productive journals. It also analyses the characteristics of most productive institutions, authors and high-cited papers. The publications output and impact of India is also compared with China, South Korea, Taiwan and Brazil.     

Collaboration Patterns in Indian and Bulgarian Epidemiology of Neoplasms in Medline for 1966–1999

The publication output of India and Bulgaria on epidemiology of neoplasms as reflected in Medline on CD-ROM for 1966–1999 was scientometrically analyzed. Indians have published 347 papers in 24 domestic journals but 444 papers in169 journals from 21 countries. Bulgarians have published 88 papers in 6 Bulgarian journals but 63 papers in 39 journals from 13 countries. Some 17 journals from 8 countries contained papers by Indian and Bulgarian authors both. Oncology dominated with 46 different journals. Indians have published papers in foreign journals of 30 thematic profiles but Bulgarians - of 12 ones. The collaboration of Indians and Bulgarians resulted from joint bilateral projects and/or postgraduate studies abroad. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Use of citation per publication as an indicator to evaluate pentachlorophenol research

The objective of the study was to perform a bibliometric analysis of all pentachlorophenolrelated publications in the Science Citation Index (SCI). Analyzed parameters included document type, language of publication, page count, publication output, authorship, keywords plus, publication pattern, citation and country of publication. The US produced 29% of the total single country publications where the seven major industrial countries accounted for the majority of the total production (66%). An indicator citation per publication was successfully applied in this study to evaluate the impact of number of authors, countries, and journals. The mean value of citation per publication of collaborative papers was higher than that of single country publications. In addition analysis of keywords plus in different period was applied to indicate a research trend.     

A bibliometric analysis of physics publications in Korea, 1994-1998

This study examined research performance of Korean physicists, comparing Korean-authoredpapers versus internationally co-authored papers, indexed in SCI, 1994-1998, and using thenumber of citations received by internationally co-authored papers covered by the SCI CD-ROM.For the study, 4,665 papers published from the researchers affiliated with the physics departmentsor physics-associated laboratories at Korean universities and indexed by SCI were analyzed.Korean authored papers tended to be published in Korean, Japanese, and UK journals, whileinternationally co-authored papers were more likely to appear in German, Dutch, and Swissjournals. Among the 18 authorship countries (on the basis of first author), 93 internationally co-authored papers by U.S. researchers had the highest citation rate, an average 15.9 citations perpaper. Of the eight countries that published over 5 papers, there was no correlation between theaverage number of citations per paper and the total number of citations. However, an ANOVAindicated a significant difference between the average number of citations per paper according tocountry (F = 5.84, p < 0.0005). In other words, papers by the U.S. and French researchers tendedto be cited more frequently than papers by the Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Germanresearchers.     

Authorship patterns in agricultural sciences in Egypt

This study examines patterns of authorship in nineteen Egyptian journals of agricultural science. Multiple authorship was found to be the predominant trend in the field and co-authored papers accounted for some 79 percent of the sample. The most common form of multiple authorship involved three people. Considerable variation was found among sub-fields and co-authorship was found to be most common in social-science related agricultural disciplines. The author found no significant differences in patterns of collaboration in the agricultural sciences in Egypt and two the other developing countries for which comparative data was available, India and Pakistan.     

Characteristics of monographic special issues in Ibero-American psychology journals: visibility and relevance for authors and publishers

This paper aims to determine the existence of differential characteristics between monographic special issues and regular non-monographic issues published by psychology journals according to different bibliometric indicators. The materials studied consisted of a total of 1120 articles published in 10 Ibero-American psychology journals included in the JCRs from 2013 to 2015. The number of monographic articles was 286 and the non-monographic works were 834. The results indicate that the articles published in monographic special issue journal receive a higher number of citations and that their publication times are shorter. A greater presence of journal committee members as authors of the papers in monographic special issues was also observed, and the number of authors per paper was lower compared to articles published in non-monographs. As a conclusion, publishing papers in monographic special issues versus non-monographic in the reviewed journals has some advantages for both journals and authors, such as greater international visibility and shorter publication times.     

Status of India in science and technology as reflected in its publication output in the Scopus international database, 1996–2006

This paper seeks to provide current indicators on Indian science and technology for measuring the country’s progress in research. The study uses for the purpose 11 years publications data on India and top 20 productive countries as drawn from the Scopus database for the period 1996 to 2006. The study examines country performance on several measures including country publication share in the world research output, country publication share in various subjects in the national context and in the global context, patterns of research communication in core Indian domestic and international journals, geographical distribution of publications, share of international collaborative papers at the national level as well as across subjects and characteristics of high productivity institutions, scientists and cited papers. The paper also compares the similarity of Indian research profile with top 20 productive countries. The findings of the study should be of special significance to the planners & policy-makers as they have implications for the long term S&T planning of the country.     

Citation frequency: A biased measure of research impact significantly influenced by the geographical origin of research articles

Context. The use of citation frequency and impact factor as measures of research quality and journal prestige is being criticized. Citation frequency is augmented by self-citation and for most journals the majority of citations originate from a minority of papers. We hypothesized that citation frequency is also associated with the geographical origin of the research publication. Objective. We determined whether citations originate more frequently from institutes that are located in the same country as the authors of the cited publication than would be expected by chance. Design. We screened citations referring to 1200 cardiovascular publications in the 7 years following their publication. For the 1200 citation recipient publications we documented the country where the research originated (9 countries/regions) and the total number of received citations. For a selection of 8864 citation donor papers we registered the country/region where the citing paper originated. Results. Self-citation was common in cardiovascular journals (n = 1534, 17.8%). After exclusion of self-citation, however, the number of citations that originated from the same country as the author of the citation recipient was found to be on average 31.6% higher than would be expected by chance (p<0.01 for all countries/regions). In absolute numbers, nation oriented citation bias was most pronounced in the USA, the country with the largest research output (p<0.001). Conclusion. Citation frequency was significantly augmented by nation oriented citation bias. This nation oriented citation behaviour seems to mainly influence the cumulative citation number for papers originating from the countries with a larger research output.     

An attempt of surveying and classifying bibliometric indicators for scientometric purposes

An attempt is made for the survey and classification of bibliometric indicators applicable for assessment of publication performance of researchers active in natural sciences. Indicators can be classified as publication and citation ones which may refer to impact and quantity of publication activity of researcher(s), teams, institutes or countries. Taking into account the possible reference standards, the indicators are classified as simple, specific, balance, distribution and relative ones. In order to evaluate publication activity both qualitatively and quantitatively, relative citation indicators can be recommended, which relate citations received to the sum of impact factors of the journals, where the papers were published or give the relative measure of the average citedness of papers related to that of papers in journals in a similar subfield.     

Bibliometric Output from Colombian Researchers with Approved Projects by COLCIENCIAS between 1983 and 1994

We present a characterization of bibliometric output in Colombia resulting from research projects financed by COLCIENCIAS between 1983 and 1994 in the following programs: Health Sciences; Basic Science; Energy and Mining; Agricultural Sciences; Technological, Industrial and Quality Development; Marine Sciences; Social Sciences; Education; Environment and Habitat; Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Systems.In the case of periodicals, we establish: patterns of production by author; patterns of publication in national journals vs. international journals; the effect of international collaboration in projects over publication in international journals; patterns of bibliometric production by fields of research using UNESCO classifications; a list of the most frequently used journals by Colombian researchers as vehicles to communicate their results; patterns of bibliometric production from Colombian institutions; geographical distribution of bibliometric output; and finally, a review on the mean number of authors of articles for some fields of science and technology.We present also theses production patterns for books and B.Sc., MSc. and PhD. theses using UNESCO codes of the projects. We comment on the human resources formation.It is found as a dominant behavior of the so commented patterns a low index of publication per project and a high tendency in the distribution of publications to concentrate on few actors (researchers, institutions, origin of the publication, journals, human resources). It is also found that there exists a strong concentration of bibliometric output in the program of Basic Sciences, in fields such as phytochemistry and solid state physics (super and semiconductors).     

Non-English journals and papers in physics and chemistry: bias in citations?

This study investigates, at the journal as well as the article level, if there is a difference in citations between English-language and non-English publications. The Web of Knowledge is used as data source. The investigation focuses on the fields of physics and chemistry. Using a precise definition of a “non-English journal”, we filter out nine physics and thirty-four chemistry non-English journals, scattered over six physics and seven chemistry subfields. Average received citations per paper (CpP) of the non-English journal(s) are compared with the CpP of pure English journals, and this in the same subfield. We clearly observe that non-English journals are inferior—in number of citations received—to pure English journals and this in all physics and chemistry subfields studied. Further, twelve physics journals and ten chemistry journals were chosen as sample journals to compare the CpP of non-English papers with that of English language papers in the same journal. The result of this comparison is that for the majority of these journals and for most of the publication years the CpP of non-English papers is lower than that of the English language papers. Finally, analyzing linguistic characteristics of the citing literature confirms the own-language preference in non-English physics and chemistry journals.     

Mapping of dental science research in India: a scientometric analysis of India’s research output, 1999–2008

The study examines India’s performance based on its publication output in dental sciences during 1999–2008, based on several parameters, including the country annual average growth rate, global publication share & rank among 25 most productive countries of the world, national publication output and impact in terms of average citations per paper, international collaboration output and share and contribution of major collaborative partners, contribution and impact of select top 25 Indian institutions and select top 15 most productive authors, patterns of communication in national and international journals and characteristics of its 45 high cited papers. The study uses 10 years (1999–2008) publications data in dental sciences of India and other countries drawn from Scopus international multidisciplinary bibliographical database.     

Papers written by Nobel Prize winners in physics before they won the prize: an analysis of their language and journal of publication

In this paper, we analyzed data relating to the language of papers written by winners of Nobel Prizes in physics before they won the prize and their journals of publication, and we identified the change in scientific language corresponding with shifts of the center of the scientific world. Using the science citation index as the main data source, we also collected information on the distribution of prize-winning scientists by country, by each scientist’s number of published papers, and by language. We then analyzed their papers in terms of the different journals based in different countries. The results are presented in three parts: (1) the main languages used in the papers are English and German. The proportion of papers in English is gradually increasing, while that of papers in German is decreasing. (2) The prize winning scientists’ papers have been published mainly in journals in their own nation and in the United States. (3) Journals based in their own countries are very helpful to these scientists early in their careers.