Scientometrics of laser research in India during 1970-1994

An analysis of 952 publications published by Indian scientists and abstracted by Journal of Current Laser Abstracts during 1970-1994 indicates that laser research in India picked up during 1978-1994 and reached its peak in 1980. The Indian output in the field of laser research forms an integral part of the mainstream science as reflected by the pattern of publications and their citations in the international literature. Laser research performed in India improved considerably during 1985-1994 as compared to 1970-1984 as seen by different impact indicators such as citation per paper, proportion of high quality papers, and publication effective index. The publication output is concentrated among few institutions and there is a similarity in the activity and attractively profile of the highly productive institutions. India"s citation rate per paper for highly productive authors is at par with the world citation rate per paper. The study indicates that the proportion of mega authored papers increased during 1990-1994 and the international collaboration is mainly with the USA.     

International earth science literature from Turkey — 1970–2005: Trends and possible causes

We investigated the publication trends in the international earth science literature coming out of Turkey in the period of 1970–2005 using the Science Citation Index Expanded database. A database of 2310 earth science publications with at least one of the authors with an address in Turkey was compiled. The number of earth science publications from Turkey shows a very rapid increase starting in the 1990’s in parallel with the increase in the total scientific output of Turkey. In the last decade the annual growth rate has been 16%. There was also a concomitant increase in the number of citations. The causes of the sharp increase in the publication numbers are, in order of importance, changes in the rules of academic promotion and appointment, changes in academic attitudes towards publishing, increasing support for research, financial incentives for publishing, and expansion of higher education. However, the sharp increase in the publication numbers was not accompanied by a similar increase in the impact of the publications as measured by the citations. Although publications with first authors from outside Turkey make up only 20% of the Turkish earth science publications in the period 1970–2005, these account for 38% of the total citations, and constitute 48 out of 100 most cited papers.     

Research productivity in soil science in the Philippines

Understanding the direction and magnitude of soil science publication in the Philippines is crucial in formulating research priorities and funding allocation. There is no consensus on the current state of soil science publication in the Philippines, thus this study was conducted to elucidate the trend in the soil science publication. We conducted an in-depth analysis on the total number of publications and the total number of citations of soil science publications collected from Thomson ISI database. Results revealed an upsurge in soil science publication from 1970 to 2000 with no indication that this trend is slowing down. Increases in the number of citations with time are consistent with increases in the total number of publications (r = 0.93; p < 0.05). Results further revealed that the soil science publication in the Philippines is biased towards rice research particularly soil water with very few studies were published for plant nutrition and soil chemistry. The present study highlights the need for a paradigm shift in soil science research from mostly rice related research to environmental research. Ways to increase soil science publication among Filipino soil scientist’s particularly in academic institutions is proposed. Finally, since only a few government-funded research have been published, future studies should stress on identifying factors that influence scientific productivity of most soil scientists in the Philippines.     

S&T publications output of Nepal: a quantitative analysis, 2001–10

This study analyses the research output of Nepal in S&T during 2001–10 on several parameters including its growth and country publications share in the world’s research output, country publications share in various subjects in the national and global context, pattern of research communication in core domestic and international journals, geographical distribution of publications, share of international collaborative publications at the national level as well as across subjects and characteristics of high productivity institutions, authors and cited papers. The Scopus Citation Database has been used to retrieve the publication data for 10 years.     

Using Hypertext Metrics to Measure Research Output Levels

Two common ways to measure the "output" of a researcher (or research group) are to count numbers of publications and to count the citations (references to these publications in publications of others). These simple methods are flawed because they cannot easily take into account the differences in publication and citation habits in different scientific communities.An alternative approach is to view citations as hypertext links, and to use or adapt hypertext metrics to compare the scientific output of researchers, in comparison to that of others in areas with similar publication and citation patterns. We show how hypertext metrics, introduced by Botafogo, Rivlin and Shneiderman, can be modified in order to identify comparable research fields based on their publication and citation pattern. An author's performance can then be compared to that of others in research fields with a similar pattern.     

Recognition and international collaboration: the Brazilian case

The number of Brazilian publications in the Institute for Scientific Information database, ISI, increased significantly in the last 20 years, comprising more than 1 percent of the database in the last two years. The relationship between size and recognition of Brazilian science, estimated by number of ISI-indexed publications, p, and citations, c, obeyed a power law, c = k pⁿ. The value of n, a known indicator of such relationship was 1.42 ± 0.04, significantly higher than that found for the whole set of ISI-indexed world publications. The recent growth of Brazilian publication was not solely due to international collaboration, since over the last six years international collaboration, estimated as the percentage of Brazilian publications having at least one foreign address, reached a constant value of ca. 30%. International collaboration increased the impact of Brazilian publications. Although the most frequent collaborating countries are those that produce the largest percentage of world"s science, Brazilian collaboration with Argentina and Chile exhibit impacts comparable to the major science producers. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Comparison of independent research of China’s top universities using bibliometric indicators

The institutionally independent publications of Tsinghua University and Peking University were compared by two main indicators namely peak-year citations per publication and h-index, based on the data extracted from the Science Citation Index Expanded, Web of Science from 1974 to 2011. Analyzed aspects covered total publication outputs, annual production, impact, authorships, Web of Science categories, journals, and most cited articles. Results shows that the two universities were in the same scale based on the peak-year citations per publication, the h-index, and top cited articles with no less than 100 citations. Publication of the top three most productive Web of Science categories differed between these two universities. Tsinghua University published more articles in applied science and engineering fields, while Peking University had more basic science articles. In addition, article life was applied to compare the impact of the most cited articles and single author articles of the two universities.     

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.     

Regional analysis on Chinese scientific output

Based on data from the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE) and using scientometric methods, we conducted a systematic analysis of Chinese regional contributions and international collaboration in terms of scientific publications, publication activity, and citation impact. We found that regional contributions are highly skewed. The top positions measured by number of publications or citations, share of publications or citations are taken by almost the same set of regions. But this is not the case when indicators for relative citation impact are used. Comparison between regional scientific output and R&D expenditure shows that Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient between the two indicators is rather low among the leading publication regions.     

Research performance of Turkish astronomers in the period of 1980–2010

We investigated the development of astronomy and astrophysics research productivity in Turkey in terms of publication output and their impacts as reflected in the science citation index for the period 1980–2010. Our study involves 838 refereed publications, including 801 articles, 16 letters, 15 reviews, and six research notes. The number of papers were prominently increased after 2000 and the average number of papers per researcher is calculated as 0.89. Total number of received citations for 838 papers is 6938, while number of citations per papers is approximately 8.3 in 30 years. Publication performance of Turkish astronomers and astrophysicists was compared with those of seven countries that have similar gross domestic expenditures on research and development, and members of organization for economic co-operation and development. Our study reveals that the output of astronomy and astrophysics research in Turkey has gradually increased over the years.     

The Natural Environment Research Council (NERC): Recent experiences with quantitative science policy studies

NERC is exploring methods by which its management of research and science audit might be improved. Quantitative output indicators have been used to provide information for science audit at the levels of individuals and laboratories. Scientists in eleven laboratories described their research activities over five years and provided output indicators, including publications in the refereed and general literature. Citation counts and influence profiles were then prepared. The paper describes some comparisons between laboratories in similar areas of science made by relating these outputs to inputs (staff and money). The productivity distribution in terms of publications and citations of the individuals within a laboratory community is also derived.     

Research output analysis of municipal solid waste: a case study of China

Municipal solid waste (MSW) management in China draws particular attention as China has become the largest MSW generator in the world. The paper analyzed the growth and development of MSW research productivity in China in terms of publication output as reflected in science citation index for the period 1997–2011. The study revealed that the output of MSW research in China has rapidly increased over the 15 years in contrast with USA. Chinese authors contributed 730 publications out of which 708 were journal articles, 17 reviews, 3 editorial materials, 1 correction and 1 meeting abstract, from 421 institutions. About 13.70 % of publications were contributed by Chinese Academy of Sciences, followed by Tongji University, Shanghai (13.15) and Tsinghua University, Beijing (11.10 %). That impact factors of the top 20 journals publishing most papers were between 0.30 and 4.63. Leading 20 authors in the area of MSW research published at least 13 articles per person. The annual share of publications varied from 0.27 to 20.96 % per year. The share was highest in the year 2009 at 20.96 %. An analysis of the title-words showed that “landfill”, “incineration” and “management” were recent major topics of municipal solid waste research in China. The results could help researchers understand the characteristics of research output and search hot spots of MSW field in China.     

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.     

A scientometric analysis of international LIS journals: Productivity and characteristics

This paper presents a quantitative study of productivity, characteristics and various aspects of global publication in the field of library and information science (LIS). A total of 894 contributions published in 56 LIS journals indexed in SSCI during the years of 2000-2004 were analyzed. A total of 1361 authors had contributed publications during the five years. The overwhelming majority (89.93%) of them wrote one paper. The average number of authors per paper is 1.52. All the studied papers were published in English. The sum of research output of the authors form USA and UK reaches 70% of the total productivity. Most papers received few citations. Each article received on an average 1.6 citations and the LIS researchers cite mostly latest articles. About 48% of citing authors had tendency of self-citation. The productive authors, their contribution and authorship position are listed to indicate their productivity and degree of involvement in their research publications.     

Bibliometrics of a controversial scientific literature: Polywater research, 1962-1974

Summary This study examines the bibliometrics of the controversial scientific literature of Polywater research, focusing on publication types (books, journal publications, conference proceedings, and technical reports). Publication (P) frequency is used to measure publication &ldquo;shape&apos; or pattern and output, citations per publication (CPP) for impact, author self-citations (SC) and uncited publications (UP) for their effect on P and CPP. Findings show an epidemic publication pattern, journal publications with the highest P, books with the highest CPP, and insignificant SC and UP. Comparisons to several non-controversial scientific literatures suggest that these findings may be common to other controversial scientific literatures.     

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.     

Renewable energy research 1995–2009: a case study of wind power research in EU, Spain, Germany and Denmark

The paper reports the developments and citation patterns over three time periods of research on Renewable Energy generation and Wind Power 1995–2011 in EU, Spain, Germany and Denmark. Analyses are based on Web of Science and incorporate journal articles as well as conference proceeding papers. Scientometric indicators include publication collaboration ratios, top-player distribution as well as citedness and correspondence analyses of citing publications, relative citation impact, distributions of top-cited as well as top-citing institutions and publication sources and cluster analysis of citing title terms to map knowledge export areas. Findings show an increase in citation impact for Renewable Energy and Wind Power research albeit hampered by scarcely cited conference papers. Although EU maintains its global top position in producing Renewable Energy and Wind Power research the developments of EU and German world shares as well as citation impact are negative during the most recent 7 year period. During the same time the citation impact of Spain and Denmark increase and place both nations among the top-ranking countries in Wind Power research. Spain is the only EU country that increases its world production share from 2000. China is currently ranked three after EU and USA in research output, however with a very low citation impact. Spain, Denmark and Germany each demonstrates distinct collaboration patterns and publication source and citation distribution profiles. More than half the citations to EU Wind Power research are EU-self citations. An expected intensified EU collaboration in the Wind Energy field does not come about. The most productive research institutions in Denmark and Spain are also the most cited ones.     

Medical research in South Africa: a scientometric analysis of trends,patterns, productivity and partnership

Being a scientifically active country in Africa, South Africa has made significant strides in the production of scientific publications. Medicine is one branch of science that has achieved a remarkable position in this regard. Extracting and analyzing medical publications for three decades and at regular intervals (1975–2005) from the SCI database, this paper pioneers an attempt to find out whether the reported pace of growth in the production of scientific papers in medicine is an effect of partnerships that scholars have with their counterparts within the organization, within the country, or with those in other countries. This paper also presents the unique patterns of scientific research in medicine, taking into account factors such as the count and fractional count of papers, citations, trends of growth, sectoral participation, partners, and publication outlets, and seeks to provide new insights into the directions medical science is taking in South Africa today.     

A comparison of the scientific performance of the U.S. and the European union at the turn of the 21st century

In this paper, scientific performance is identified with the impact that journal articles have through the citations they receive. In 15 disciplines, as well as in all sciences as a whole, the EU share of total publications is greater than that of the U.S. However, as soon as the citations received by these publications are taken into account the picture is completely reversed. Firstly, the EU share of total citations is still greater than the U.S. in only seven fields. Secondly, the mean citation rate in the U.S. is greater than in the EU in every one of the 22 fields studied. Thirdly, since standard indicators—such as normalized mean citation ratios—are silent about what takes place in different parts of the citation distribution, this paper compares the publication shares of the U.S. and the EU at every percentile of the world citation distribution in each field. It is found that in seven fields the initial gap between the U.S. and the EU widens as we advance towards the more cited articles, while in the remaining 15 fields—except for Agricultural Sciences—the U.S. always surpasses the EU when it counts, namely, at the upper tail of citation distributions. Finally, for all sciences as a whole the U.S. publication share becomes greater than that of the EU for the top 50% of the most highly cited articles. The data used refers to 3.6 million articles published in 1998–2002, and the more than 47 million citations they received in 1998–2007.