N S Mehta
National Chemical Laboratory
Punei-411008

Abstract

Maps Indian contributions in chemistry and chemical engineering culling the required data from the 1990 and 1994 volumes of Chemical Abstracts which noticed 10,511 and 13,060 Indian contributions respectively. Of these contributions two were in journals having IF more than 20, nine in journals with IF between 10 and 20, and 106 were in journals with IF between 5 and 10. Most of the papers were published in Indian journals. Of the 1,889 journals that published Indian contributions, 738 journals were not covered by JCR 1994. Indian contributions were found to be maximum on electric phenomena (1,259), followed by optical, electron and mass spectroscopy and other related properties (950), and toxicology (918 papers). Indian contributors were also comparatively prolific in plant biochemistry (826 papers) and inorganic chemicals (798 papers).

Of the 550 institutions that contributed more than 2 papers each Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai ranks first with 876 papers, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore comes next with 795 papers. Banaras Hindu University ranks third with 544 papers. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai; National Chemical Laboratory, Pune; IIT, Kharagpur; IIT, Delhi and Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta have more than 300 publications each.

In state-wise distribution of papers Maharashtra leads the list with 3,433 contributions (15.48 per cent), followed by Uttar Pradesh with 3,124 (14.08 per cent), West Bengal with 2,630 (11.86 per cent), Tamil Nadu with 1,999 (9.01 per cent), Andhra Pradesh with 1,947 (8.78 per cent), Karnataka with 1,813 (8.17 per cent), and Delhi with 1,486 contributions (6.70 per cent).About 95% contributions are in the form of journal articles and more than 99% are in English.

Methodology

For this study the abstracts included in the 1990 and 1994 volumes of Chemical Abstracts (CA) were considered. The relevant data was collected from CD-ROM versions of the 12th Collective Index (covering the volumes of 1987-1991) and the 13th Collective Index (covering the volumes of 1992-1996). The data included in the aforementioned sources was copied onto a server. Then, the software for downloading the required data into the client node, was installed and the data for both the years was downloaded. The bibliographic details were converted into a Foxpro database file. Because of the limitation of the data downloading software (maximum of 1,000 records could be saved at a time), it took a lot of time to complete the downloading.

The search was carried out with the terms `India' and 1990 and 1994 and the relevant bibliographic details were downloaded removing unwanted details such as abstract, index, keywords, title, etc. This removal was done using a software written in `C'. The data generated out of this was converted into Foxpro database file and used for further conversion. The Foxpro programme was used for separating the fields of bibliographic information like authors, institution address, journal name, issue number, page numbers, ISSN, etc. As there is no uniformity or consistency in the names of institutions in the database, a lot of manual work was done to arrive at uniformity for making the analysis.

Analysis

The data of 1990 downloaded from the database covered 4,86,936 items (articles, patents, reports, etc) and of these, the contributions from India were 10,511. For the year 1994, the total coverage was 6,06,335 items and the Indian contributions were 13,060. About 5 per cent of the data could not be downloaded.

Journal-wise Contributions

Indian researchers in chemistry and chemical engineering contributed to 1,889 journals as covered in the 1990 and 1994 databases. The impact factors (IF) for these journals were noted from the Journal Citation Reports (JCR) for the year 1994. [It is to be noted that IFs of journals for the year 1990 are different from those of 1994. However, in this study IFs of 1994 have been used for both 1990 and 1994 journals _ Editor] . Several papers appeared in very high impact journals. Of these, a paper from International Crop Research Institute for Semi Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) was published in Science (IF _ 22.067) in 1990. The paper in the next high impact journal was from Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar that appeared in Immunology Today (IF 22.047) also in 1990. In the journal Chemical Reviews (IF 14.240) one paper each was contributed by Bose Institute, Calcutta and by Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1994. Inorganic Synthesis (IF 11.6) had a paper in 1990 from North-Eastern Hill University, Shillong. Molecular Cell Biology (IF 10.195) had two Indian papers in 1990, one each from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and Bose Institute, Calcutta. Indian scientists contributed only two papers in journals having IF more than 20, nine papers in journals with IF between 10 and 20, and 106 papers in journals with IF between 5 and 10. It can also be seen that, of the 1,889 journals that published Indian contributions, 738 journals were not covered by JCR 1994. That is, 39.06 per cent of journals in chemistry and chemical engineering carrying Indian contributions are not listed in JCR. Also, Indian contributions are largely published in Indian journals. The journals publishing Indian contributions in decreasing order of publication in both the years together, are Indian Journal of Chemistry (1069 papers), Journal of Indian Chemical Society (513), Indian Journal of Experimental Biology (329), Bulletin of Electrochemistry (290), Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics (275), etc.

Section-wise Contributions

The entire coverage of Chemical Abstracts is classified into 80 sub-fields or sections. A look at the distribution of Indian contributions among these sections shows that maximum number of publications were under Electric Phenomena (1,259), followed by Optical, Electron and Mass Spectroscopy and Other Related Properties (950). Contributions under Toxicology came next with 918 contributions. Indian contributors were also comparatively prolific in Plant Biochemistry with 826 papers and Inorganic Chemicals and Reactions with 798 papers. Minimum publications are noticed under Industrial Carbohydrates (18).

Institution-wise Contributions

In all, 550 Indian institutions contributed a total of 18,839 papers (8,779 in 1990 and 10,060 in 1994), of which Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai ranks first with a tally of 876 papers, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore comes next with 795 papers. Banaras Hindu University has to its credit 544 papers and ranks third. Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Chennai; National Chemical Laboratory, Pune; IIT, Kharagpur; IIT, Delhi and Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Calcutta have more than 300 publications each. Of the 550 institutions that contributed more than 2 papers each, 8 contributed more than 300 papers each; 35 contributed more than 100 papers but less than 300 each; 46 contributed more than 50 papers but less than 101 each, and 150 contributed more than 10 papers but less than 51 each. Thus, it can be seen that of the 550 Indian institutions covered in the database only 239 institutions contributed more than 10 papers each. The Indian contributions covered in the database are grouped according to the type of institutions, like academic institutions, private sector R&D institutions, etc. The distribution shows that 268 academic institutions (universities, institutions of higher learning, etc.) contributed 10,492 publications, 165 central government institutions (including public sector) contributed 7,016 publications, 83 private sector R&D organisations (including DSIR organisations) contributed 989 publications and 34 state government institutions contributed 342 publications.

State-wise Contributions

State-wise distribution of Indian contributions shows that Maharashtra leads the list with 3,433 contributions (15.48 per cent), followed by Uttar Pradesh with 3,124 (14.08 per cent), West Bengal with 2,630 (11.86 per cent), Tamil Nadu with 1,999 (9.01 per cent), Andhra Pradesh with 1,947 (8.78 per cent), Karnataka with 1,813 (8.17 per cent), and Delhi with 1,486 contributions (6.70 per cent). The contributions of other states are less than 1,000 while those from Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Nagaland are less than ten each (i.e. less than one per cent).

Contributions by Document Type and Language

In terms of the type of documents, more than 95 per cent Indian contributions are journal articles and nearly 3 per cent are conference papers. Almost all Indian contributions on chemistry and chemical engineering were in English. The contributions in other languages (French, German and Hindi) were about 0.11 per cent.

* The paper is based on the report prepared under the National Mapping of Science Project. Unless otherwise stated it is to be assumed that the statements made in the article are based on two years of data taken together. - Editor