Foreign authored contributions to Indian science periodicals

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1 Annals of Library and Information Studies 80 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUNE 2009 Vol. 56, June 2009, pp Foreign authored contributions to Indian science periodicals K.C.Garg 1 and Suresh Kumar 2 1 Scientist, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg (Pusa Gate), New Delhi , gargkc@nistads.res.in 2 Technical Officer, National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), Dr. K.S. Krishnan Marg (Pusa Gate), New Delhi Examination of 2450 papers published by foreign authors in 284 Indian science journals from 1311 institutions spread over 102 countries indicates that Asian countries are the largest contributors to these journals. Turkey, USA, Iran, China and Nigeria contributed to about 48% of the total foreign-authored publications. Most of the prolific institutions are situated in Turkey and Iran. The largest numbers of contributions are in the discipline of medicine followed by chemistry and material science. The proportion of foreign authored contributions to Indian science journals has witnessed a three-fold increase in 2006 as compared to July June Introduction Periodicals constitute the life blood of scholarly science communication. They play an important role in the dissemination of knowledge and are indispensable for scientists engaged in research. Being an integral part of the S&T infrastructure of a country, both, developed as well as developing countries are in the process of establishing their domestic journals. The publication of domestic journals helps to raise the national scientific morale and provides an inexpensive channel of scholarly communication, independent of the need for foreign exchange. India also publishes a large number of science periodicals. Many of these are abstracted by international abstracting and indexing services. However, the exact number of periodicals indexed by these services is not available and needs a separate study. The study of the publishing patterns of scholars is an interesting and important area of scientometric research. If a journal is capable of attracting foreign contributions from the scientifically advanced countries of the world, then the prestige and worth of the journal is well established. The pattern of international communication in scholarly publications can be analysed through the study of foreign authored contributions in science journals. Keeping the above objective in mind, the present study examines the contributions of foreign authors to Indian science journals. Kumar and Kochhar 1 undertook a similar study using the periodicals abstracted by Indian Science Abstracts (ISA) as the database for a period of two years (July 1982 to June 1984). A comparison of foreign authorship distribution in the Journal of the American Society for Information Science (USA) and Journal of Documentation (UK) has also been performed by He and Spink 2. However, no study is known on other Indian journals. Objectives The objectives of the present study are: 1. To identify the geographic regions and locations from where foreign authors published in Indian science journals and to locate which geographic regions and locations had the most papers; 2. To identify the most prolific foreign institutions publishing in Indian science journals; 3. To identify the scientific disciplines which have attracted the largest number of foreign contributions; and 4. To identify those Indian science journals to which foreign authors have contributed the most. Methodology The data for the present study consisted of foreign contributions published in Indian science journals for the year The data for the study was downloaded from

2 GARG & KUMAR: FOREIGN AUTHORED CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDIAN SCIENCE PERIODICALS 81 the web-edition of Indian Science Abstracts, a fortnightly abstracting publication of the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCAIR), New Delhi for the years 2006, 2007 and 2008, to include all those journals which are published behind schedule. During this period, ISA had abstracted 445 periodicals. From this data, records pertaining to foreign authors were identified and segregated into a separate file. The data thus obtained was converted into a Fox-Pro database. To facilitate analysis, data was standardized for different institutions and journals as there was a wide variation in the names of institutions as well as journals. The data was subsequently analysed to meet the objectives mentioned above. Results The ISA had published abstracts during the year 2006, excluding patents, thesis and standards from 445 Indian periodicals. Of these (88%) abstracts were from Indian authors and the rest 2450 (12%) abstracts had been contributed by foreign authors. These 2450 papers had been contributed by authors located in 1311 institutions scattered over 102 countries and had appeared in 284 Indian science periodicals. Succeeding paragraphs provide a detailed analysis of different scientometric parameters. Distribution of output according to regions The entire output of foreign contributions was divided into six continents, viz Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, North America and Oceania. Table 1 provides regional distribution of foreign contributions in Indian science journals along with the number of countries belonging to each region. Table 1 indicates that more than half of the foreign contributions were from 36 countries in Asia, followed by Europe. Asia also had the largest number of countries with a prolific output as compared to countries from other regions. The number of countries from Europe and Asia as represented in Table 1 was almost equal. However, the percentage of contributions from European countries is only about onefourth of the share of Asian countries. The number of countries represented from South America and North America was very less and the contributions from countries in South America were the minimum as compared to contributions from countries in other parts of the globe. Brazil was the largest contributor from this region with 22 papers. The contributions from countries in Africa, Europe, and North America were almost equal. Distribution of output according to countries The total publication output came from 102 countries. Table 1 provides a list of countries which have published 20 or more papers in Indian science journals. Twenty three countries listed in Table 1 published 83% papers and the remaining 79 countries contributed only 17% publications. This indicates that foreign contributions to Indian science journals are concentrated among these countries. Five countries among the top 23 countries, with a publication output of more than 100 papers, namely Turkey, USA, Iran, China and Nigeria contributed ~ 48% papers to the total output of foreign contributions. Distribution of output according to institutes The total output came from 1311 academic and research institutions and 36 papers were contributed by individuals. Of these, 944 (~72%) institutions had contributed one paper each, 174 (13%) institutions had contributed two papers each, 166 (13%) institutions had contributed 3-9 papers and the remaining 2% had contributed 10 or more papers. Of the total 1311 institutions, 1016 (~77%) were situated in countries that had contributed 20 or more papers (Table 1). Among the most prolific countries, the highest number of institutions was from USA followed by China. Table 2 lists 27 most prolific institutions from different countries, which contributed 409 (17%) papers and highest number of institutions with prolific output was from Turkey (11) and Iran (8). Disciplines of preference by different countries The entire output was broadly divided into 8 disciplines. These were medicine, chemistry and material sciences, mathematics, biological sciences, physical and earth sciences, agriculture and veterinary sciences, environmental sciences, and engineering and technology. Of the 2450 papers published by the authors located in different countries in various disciplines, it was observed that medical science was the most preferred area attracting the highest number (22%) of papers. This was followed by chemistry and material science (17%), mathematics and biological sciences contributing (13%) each, physical and earth sciences, and agricultural and veterinary sciences, each contributing 11%. The remaining 13% publications were distributed in the environmental sciences and engineering and technology. Table 3 depicts the number of publications in various disciplines for different countries that have published 50

3 82 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUNE 2009 Table 1 Distribution of output according to regional and geographic locations Continent No. of Most publishing No. of papers No. of countries countries institutions Asia 36 Turkey Iran China Japan Bangladesh South Korea Malaysia Nepal Pakistan Saudi Arabia Other 26 countries Total 1308(53.4) 570 (43.5%) Africa 23 Nigeria Egypt Algeria Other 20 countries Total 303 (12.5) 138 (10.5%) Europe 30 UK Germany France Italy Spain Russia Other 24 countries Total 367(15.0) 300 (22.9) North America 5 USA Canada Other 3 countries Total 384 (15.7) 246 (18.8%) South America 6 Brazil Other 5 countries Total 40(1.6) 29(2.2%) Oceania 2 Australia Other 1country 8 5 Total 46(1.9) 29(2.2%) Grand Total (100) 1311 or more papers along with a listing of their preferred discipline. Most preferred journals India publishes a large number of science periodicals. Many of these periodicals are covered in international abstracting/indexing services. Of the 445 journals abstracted by ISA for the 2006, Science Citation Index - Expanded (SCI-E) indexed 46 periodicals. The analysis of the data indicates that 2450 foreign publications appeared in 284 journals. Frequency distribution of the output in journals is given in Table 4. Table 5 lists the most preferred 21 Indian science periodicals. Of these, 12 are indexed by SCI-E. These 21 periodicals published 1112 (~ 46%) papers and the rest of the 1338 (~ 54%) papers were scattered in the remaining 263 journals. Discussions The study shows that 1311institutions scattered over 102 foreign countries published papers in Indian science journals. Of these, two-third publications were from developing countries in Asia and Africa and the remaining one-third were from the developed countries. A scrutiny of the data indicates that most of the contributions from

4 GARG & KUMAR: FOREIGN AUTHORED CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDIAN SCIENCE PERIODICALS 83 Table 2 Most prolific institutions Institute Country No. of Papers Yuzuncu Yil University Turkey 35 Istanbul University Turkey 25 Firat University Turkey 24 University of Uludag Turkey 20 Islamic Azad University Iran 19 Putra University Malaysia 18 University of Guilan Iran 18 Ahwaz Jondishapour University of Medical Sciences Iran 16 Qingdao University of Science and Technology China 16 National Research Center Dokki Egypt 15 University of Dicle Turkey 15 University of Tehran Iran 15 Zheziang University China 15 Shiraz University Iran 14 Ataturk University Turkey 12 Cukurova University Turkey 12 University of Kafkas Turkey 12 University of Kerman Iran 12 University of Mazandaran Iran 12 B P Koirala Institute of Health Sciences Nepal 11 University of Ankara Turkey 11 University of Gaziosmanpasa Turkey 11 University of Lagos Nigeria 11 Karadeniz Technical University Turkey 10 University of Chittagong Bangladesh 10 University of Isfahan Iran 10 University of Sydney Australia 10 Total 409 Table 3 Distribution of output of different countries in different disciplines Country MED CMS MATH BIO PES AVS ENS ENGG Total Discipline of preference Turkey CMS, AVS USA MED, MATH Iran CMS China CMS, MATH Nigeria BIO, ENS UK MED Japan MATH, PES Egypt CMS Germany MED, PES Canada MED, MATH Bangladesh ENS S Korea MATH Others Total MED: Medicine, CMS: Chemistry and material sciences, MATH: Mathematics, BIO: Biological sciences, PES: Physical and earth sciences; AVS: Agriculture and veterinary sciences, ENS: Environmental sciences, ENGG: Engineering and technology

5 84 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUNE 2009 Table 4 Frequency distribution of output in journals No. of papers No. of Total papers No. of papers No. of journals Total papers journals > Total Table 5 Most commonly used Indian journals No. Title of the periodical No. of papers 1. Asian Journal of Chemistry* 228 (9.3) 2. Indian Veterinary Journal* 122 (5.0) 3. Far East Journal of Mathematical Sciences 99 (4.0) 4. Pediatric (Indian Edition) 87 (3.6) 5. Pramana: Journal of Physics* 50 (2.0) 6. Asian Journal of Physics 46 (1.9) 7. Indian Journal of Chemistry B* 43 (1.8) 8. Indian Journal of Gastroenterology 38 (1.6) 9. Journal of Environmental Biology* 37 (1.5) 10. Indian Journal of Medical Research* 37 (1.5) 11. Current Science* 34 (1.4) 12. Journal of Genetics 34 (1.4) 13. Journal of Bio-Sciences 33 (1.4) 14. Indian Journal of Fibre and Textile Research 32 (1.3) 15. Journal of Applied Animal Research 31 (1.3) 16. Research Journal of Chemistry and Environment* 31 (1.3) 17. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology* 29 (1.1) 18. Transaction of the Indian Institute of Metals* 26 (1.1) 19. Asian Journal of Microbiology Biotechnology & Environmental Sciences 25 (1.0) 20. Sankhya* 25 (1.0) 21. Sugar Technology 25 (1.0) Total 1112 (45.4) Other 263 journals 1338 (54.6) Grand Total 2450(100) *Included in SCI-E scientifically advanced countries like USA, UK, Canada and Australia had been made by non-resident Indians. However, in case of developing countries, a probable reason to publish in Indian journals could be the nonavailability of science journals in these countries. The study carried out by Kumar and Kochhar 3 using data abstracted by ISA during the period July 1982 to June 1984 (Two years) had revealed that the number of foreign contributions to Indian science journals were 1595 papers i.e. 800 publications/year. The present study indicates a three fold increase in the quantum of foreign contributions to Indian science journals. The number of countries publishing papers in Indian science journals has also witnessed an increase from 70 during the period July June 1984 to 102 in This suggests that Indian science periodicals have matured as a medium of professional scientific communication and are capable

6 GARG & KUMAR: FOREIGN AUTHORED CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDIAN SCIENCE PERIODICALS 85 of attracting foreign authors, both from developing as well as developed countries. In the earlier study the largest number of papers were published from the USA, but now that position has been taken over by Turkey, a country that did not merit a place among the most prolific countries in the previously mentioned study. However, the number of journals used for publication of research results has decreased from 349 to 284 in the present study. The discipline of chemistry had attracted the maximum number of papers in the earlier study. However, in the present study, the discipline of medicine has received maximum priority followed by chemistry and material science. The discipline of engineering and technology attracted the minimum number of publications. The ranking of journals has also witnessed a change. Indian Journal of Chemistry had been top ranking journal in the earlier study. This has now been replaced by the Asian Journal of Chemistry. The share or percentage of foreign contributions to Indian science periodicals can increase substantially, if the periodicals published from India increase their circulation, improve their punctuality of publication, in addition to improving their quality of refereeing and increase their coverage in secondary services besides constituting international editorial boards. Conclusion The quantum of foreign contributions to Indian science journals has increased three fold in 2006 as compared to the contributions during July June However, the number of journals used for publication of research results has decreased from 349 to 284. Most of the papers to Indian science journals were contributed by developing countries of Asia and Africa. Turkey has published the highest number of papers in Indian science journals. The discipline of medicine has attracted the maximum papers followed by chemistry and material science. The discipline of engineering and technology attracted the minimum number of publications. References 1. Kumar N and Kochhar V B, Foreign scientists contributions to Indian scientific periodicals: A sample study of Indian Science Abstracts, Annals of Library Science and Documentation 32 (3-4) (1985) He S and Spink A, A comparison of foreign authorship distribution in JASIST and the Journal of Documentation, Journal of the American Society for Information science and Technology, 53 (11) (2002) Kumar and Kochhar. op.cit.