A bibliometric analysis of the research output of Sambalpur University's publication in ISI Web of Science during 2007-11.

Maharana, Rabindra K. ; Sethi, Bipin Bihari

Introduction

Bibliometric analysis is currently used for evaluating the qualitative and quantitative interest in a specific field through the analysis of publications. This method is currently used in the sciences of information to describe patterns of publications within a given field. Bibliometrics refers to research methodology employed in library and information sciences, which utilizes quantitative analysis and statistics methods to describe distribution patterns of articles with a given topic (Almind and Ingwersen, 1997), field (Campanario et. al., 2006), institute (Moed et. al., 1985) or country (Schubert et al., 1989). These methods have been used to investigate research trends of specific fields recently (Vergidis et. al., 2005; Falagas et. al., 2006; Kumari, 2006).

Literature review

Bibliometric methods have been used to measure scientific progress in many disciplines of science and engineering and are a common research instrument for systematic analysis (Van Raan, 2005). Since Narin et al. (1976) first proposed the concept of "evaluative bibliometrics", many scientists have tried to evaluate the research trend in the publication outputs of countries, research institutes, journals and subject category (Garcia-Rio et al., 2001; Zhou et al., 2007), the citation analysis (Cole, 1989) and the peak year citation per publication (Chuang et al., 2007; Li and Ho, 2008).

Jeevan and Gupta have analyzed the contribution and impact of Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur by suggesting a methodology the quantitative profile of a research cum teaching institute, with a view to get idea about its performance an impact. Similarly Singh et. al. studied the research contribution and impact of Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee from 1993 to 2001. Employing a variety of bibliometric methods, including publication and citation analyses, Bonnevie (2003) investigated a multifaceted portrait of the Journal of Information Science, focused on the last quarter of the 20th century. The areas of study included the visibility of the journal in databases, the pattern of authorship, the pattern of self-citation, internalization and scientific impact. The study revealed that 2,140 JIS publications in the SSCI and LISA, with 1,228 (57.4%) in SSCI and 912 (42.6%) in LISA, respectively.

Tsay (2008) explored the relationship between Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology (JASIST) and other disciplines by drawing citation data from references of articles of JASIST in 1980, 1985, 1990, 1995, 2000 and 2004. The results of this study revealed that the production rate of JASIST literature doubled and the average number of references cited per paper is also increased 2 to 3 times in a period of about 25 years. Singh (2013) in a bibliometric analysis of the Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal (2009-2012) found that in the year 2012 maximum number of papers published compared to other years, India is the most prolific country and among all the contributors most are related to non-teaching professionals.

Swain (2011) in his scientometric analysis of Library Philosophy and Practice from 2004 to 2009 found that the degree of collaboration in LPP ranged from 0.222 to 0.52 and the highest numbers of contributors hailed from Nigeria, followed by USA, India, and Iran. Hussain and Fatima (2011) in their study a bibliometric analysis of the Chinese Librarianship: an International Electronic Journal (2006-2010) found that USA is the most prolific country; highest paper cite the journal Interlending and Document Supply; the majority of papers were contributed by single authors.

Objectives

* To measure the research output of the university;

* To identify the most prolific authors during the period;

* To identify the authorship pattern the papers published;

* To identify the journals which were most preferred by the researchers of the university;

* Measure the most cited journals during the period under study;

Methodology

One common method of bibliometric research is to trace publications using the SCI of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Philadelphia (Fu et al., 2010). The present study covers research publications of various departments of Sambalpur University during 2007 to 2011. It access the university's contribution and impact of research in different field of science and technology. The publication data of the university has been drawn from Web of Science database. Web of Science is published by Thomson Reuters, USA, it is an online version of Science Citation Index (SCI), a citation Index published by Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Philadelphia. For information retrieval "Sambalpur University" and "India" were the keywords used as address and 2007-01-01 to 2011-12-31 selected as the time span of study. Further, the result was refined only to article. Finally 170 research papers in different disciplines of science and technology retrieved matched with Sambalpur University as author's affiliation/address. Aspects referring to type of document, subject category, journal, country, departments, keywords and h-index were analyzed with MS-Excel.

Analysis & discussion

Details of publication

Sambalpur University published a total of 170 research papers in different disciplines of science and technology during 2007 to 2011, as seen from the Web of Science database. During these period its publications output rose continuously, growing by more than two times from 2007 to 2011. Its annual growth rate is average 30.53%. Table-1 gives a detailed overview of publications with their citations details as 170 papers are totally 541 times cited, 445 times cited without self-citations with an average of 3.018 citations per paper and h-index of 11. Table-1 Details of publication Total results 170 Sum of times cited 541 Sum of times cited without self-citations 445 Citing articles 422 Citing articles without self-citations 370 Average citations per item 3.018 h-index 11

Annual distribution of publication

Table-2 gives the annual distribution of papers, out of 170 papers published maximum number of 49 (28.82%) papers are published in 2011 followed by 2009 (22.94%); 2008 (19.41%); 2010 (16.47%) and 2007 (12.35%) respectively. The range of papers published per year during the period under study is in between 21-49. Table-2 Annual distribution of publication Year No. of Percentage Annual average publication (%) growth rate percent (%) 2007 21 12.35 -- 2008 33 19.41 57.14286 2009 39 22.94 18.18182 2010 28 16.47 -28.2051 2011 49 28.82 75 Grand 170 100 Ave 30.53 Total

Period-wise authorship pattern of publication

Table-3 gives a detailed overview of authorship pattern of papers published during 2007 to 2011. It is observed that out of 170 contributions, a total of 50 (29.41%) contributions have been contributed by four authors followed, by three authors (28.82%), two authors (17.06%), seven and more than seven authors (11.18%) respectively. Table-3 Authorship pattern of papers published during 2007-2011 Year One Two Three Four Five Six 2007 -- 3 8 4 4 0 2008 -- 9 10 9 1 1 2009 1 3 9 17 3 1 2010 -- 6 5 11 0 4 2011 -- 8 17 9 5 3 Grand 1 29 49 50 13 9 Total (0.59) (17.06) (28.82) (29.41) (7.65) (5.29) Year [greater Total than or equal to]Seven 2007 2 21 (12.35) 2008 3 33 (19.42) 2009 5 39 (22.94) 2010 2 28 (16.47) 2011 7 49 (28.82) Grand 19 170 Total (11.18) (100) Note: Figures in parentheses represented percentage.

Author productivity

A total of 707 authors produced 170 papers with an average of 4.16 authors per paper and 0.24 paper per author (Table-4). Out 707 total authors 317 authors are affiliated to Sambalpur University, with an average of 1.87 authors per paper and 0.54 paper per author. Further, it shows that in 2009 maximum number of authors (84) are affiliated to the university. Table-4 Author productivity Year Total no. Total no. Total Total Authors only AAPP of of AAPP PPA affiliated (SU) papers authors to SU 2007 21 81 3.86 0.26 39 1.86 2008 33 125 3.79 0.26 66 2 2009 39 177 4.54 0.22 84 2.52 2010 28 113 4.04 0.25 51 1.83 2011 49 211 4.31 0.23 77 1.58 Total 170 707 4.16 0.24 317 1.87 Year PPA (SU) 2007 0.54 2008 0.5 2009 0.47 2010 0.55 2011 0.64 Total 0.54 Note: Average Authors Per Paper (AAPP) = Number of authors/ Number of papers. Productivity per author (PPA)= Number of papers/ Number of authors

Subject-wise rank distribution of publication

The subject-wise rank distribution of publication is listed in Table-5, which shows Chemistry is the most favoured area of research among the research community of Sambalpur University with 27.65%, followed by Physics (24.12%), Astronomy & Astrophysics and Plant Science with 10.59% each. Engineering and Materials Science stood at the fourth position with 7.65% each. Table-5 Major research areas Rank Top 10 Research No. of Percentage Areas publication (%) (N=170) 1 Chemistry 47 27.65 2 Physics 41 24.12 3 Astronomy & 18 10.59 Astrophysics 3 Plant Science 18 10.59 4 Engineering 13 7.65 4 Materials Science 13 7.65 5 Biochemistry 11 6.47 Molecular Biology 6 Environmental 6 3.53 Sciences Ecology 6 Optics 6 3.53 7 mathematics 5 2.94 7 Pharmacology 5 2.94 Pharmacy 8 Biotechnology Applied 4 2.35 microbiology 8 Energy Fuels 4 2.35 8 Science Technology & 4 2.35 Others 9 Crystallography 3 1.77 9 Metallurgy & 3 1.77 Metallurgical Engineering 9 Telecommunications 3 1.77 10 Agriculture 2 1.18 10 Computer Science 2 1.18

Degree of collaboration

Degree of collaboration is an examination of the prominent area of inquiry in bibliometric studies indicating the trend in patterns of single and joint authorship in the publication of Samblapur University during the period under study, as shown in Table-6. The degree of collaboration "C" is 0.99 (nearly equals to 1) that means there is few/negligible contributions by single authors.

The extent of collaboration in research can be measured with the help of the formula:

C = [N.sub.M]/[[N.sub.M] + [N.sub.S]]

Where, C= Degree of Collaboration

[N.sub.M] = Number of multiple authors

[N.sub.S] = Number of single authors Table-6 Degree of collaboration Year Single Multiple [N.sub.M]+ Degree of authored authored paper paper [N.sub.S] Collaboration ([N.sub.S]) ([N.sub.M]) (C) 2007 -- 21 21 1 2008 -- 33 33 1 2009 1 38 39 0.97 2010 -- 28 28 1 2011 -- 49 49 1 Total 1 169 170 0.99

Bradford's law and distribution of core journals

Bradford stated that "if scientific journals are arranged in order of decreasing productivity of articles on a given subjects, they may be divided into a nucleus of periodicals more particularly devoted to the subject and several groups or zones containing the same number of articles as the nucles and succeeding zones will be as 1:n:n (2) ...".

The journal distribution of Table-7 shows that there was a tremendous scattering of literature in the publication pattern of the university. Further, it shows that the first zone or nucleus contains four journals which covered about one-third of the total papers, followed by second zone with nine accounted for another one-third and the third zone with 88 journals covered the remaining third zone. Table-7 Ranking of contributing journals published two or more papers Cumulative Rank Most favored journal for No. of Percentage No. of publication paper (%) papers 1 Astrophysics and Space 17 10 17 Science 2 Journal of The Indian 8 4.71 25 Chemical Society 3 Indian Journal of 6 3.53 31 Chemistry Section A Inorganic Bio Inorganic Physical Theoretical Analytical Chemistry 3 Optics Communications 6 3.53 37 3 Plant Science 6 3.53 43 4 Journal of Colloid and 5 2.94 48 Interface Science 4 Physical Review C 5 2.94 53 5 International Journal of 4 2.35 57 Theoretical Physics 6 Energy Fuels 3 1.76 60 6 Plant Growth Regulation 3 1.76 63 7 Acta Crystallographica 2 1.18 65 Section E Structure Reports Online 7 European Physical Journal 2 1.18 67 A 7 Industrial Engineering 2 1.18 69 Chemistry Research 7 International Journal of 2 1.18 71 Modern Physics B International Journal of 7 Modern Physics E Nuclear 2 1.18 73 Physics 7 Journal of Alloys and 2 1.18 75 Compounds 7 Journal of Heterocyclic 2 1.18 77 Chemistry Journal of Physics G Nuclear 7 and Particle Physics 2 1.18 79 7 Letters in Drug Design 2 1.18 81 Discovery 7 Materials Letters 2 1.18 83 7 Nuclear Physics A 2 1.18 85 Phosphorus Sulfur and Silicon and the 7 Related Elements 2 1.18 87 7 Photosynthetic A 2 1.18 89 7 Physic A B Condensed 2 1.18 91 Matter 7 Plant Physiology and 2 1.18 93 Biochemistry 7 Synthetic Communications 2 1.18 95 8 Journal with single 75 44.1 170 paper Grand Total 170 100 -- Rank Most favored journal for Percentage publication (%) 1 Astrophysics and Space 10 Science 2 Journal of The Indian 14.71 Chemical Society 3 Indian Journal of 18.24 Chemistry Section A Inorganic Bio Inorganic Physical Theoretical Analytical Chemistry 3 Optics Communications 21.76 3 Plant Science 25.29 4 Journal of Colloid and 28.24 Interface Science 4 Physical Review C 31.18 5 International Journal of 33.53 Theoretical Physics 6 Energy Fuels 35.29 6 Plant Growth Regulation 37.06 7 Acta Crystallographica 38.24 Section E Structure Reports Online 7 European Physical Journal 39.41 A 7 Industrial Engineering 40.59 Chemistry Research 7 International Journal of 41.76 Modern Physics B International Journal of 7 Modern Physics E Nuclear 42.94 Physics 7 Journal of Alloys and 44.12 Compounds 7 Journal of Heterocyclic 45.29 Chemistry Journal of Physics G Nuclear 7 and Particle Physics 46.47 7 Letters in Drug Design 47.65 Discovery 7 Materials Letters 48.82 7 Nuclear Physics A 50 Phosphorus Sulfur and Silicon and the 7 Related Elements 51.18 7 Photosynthetic A 52.35 7 Physic A B Condensed 53.53 Matter 7 Plant Physiology and 54.71 Biochemistry 7 Synthetic Communications 55.88 8 Journal with single 100 paper Grand Total --

Figure 2 shows Bradford's distribution of core journals on the publication pattern of Sambalpur University during 2007 to 2011. Altogether there were 101 journals represented by 170 papers. Out of these, one journal alone published 17 papers, 6 journals published 5 to 8 papers, 19 journals published 2 to 4 papers and remaining 75 papers are scattered among 75 journals (Table-7). In Bradford's distribution, core journals are those that lay on the initial curved part of the "S" shaped plot until it tangentially becomes a straight line. Here, in figure-2, the slope of the curve also decreases slightly after the 4th journal, so these journals may be regarded as the core journals on the research publication of Sambalpur University during 2007 to 2011.

Length of paper published

The length of papers of researchers of Sambalpur University which have been published in different journals of scientific repute during 2007 to 2011 is listed in Table-8, which shows more than half of the papers are in between 6-10 pages in length i.e. 86 (50.59%), followed by 47 (27.65%) papers in between 1-5 pages, 22 (12.94%) papers in between 11-15 page range respectively. Table-8 Length of paper published during 2007-2011 Page 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 range 1-5 13 8 8 11 7 6-10 26 12 18 20 10 11-15 7 5 6 2 2 16-20 2 2 2 0 1 21-25 1 0 3 0 1 [greater 0 1 2 0 0 than or equal to] 26 Grand 49 28 39 33 21 Total (28.82) (16.47) (22.94) (19.42) (12.35) Page Total range 1-5 47 (27.65) 6-10 86 (50.59) 11-15 22 (12.94) 16-20 7 (4.12) 21-25 5 (2.94) [greater 3 (1.76) than or equal to] 26 Grand 170 Total (100)

Most prolific institution/ organizations

Table-9 shows the most prolific contributor during the period under study. With 170 (100%) publication authors affiliated with Indian Institute of Technology contribute 20 (11.76%) followed by National Institute Technology (8.23%) Table-9 Most prolific institution/ organization Rank Most prolific No. of Percentage Institution/ publication (%) Organizations (N=170) 1 Sambalpur 170 100 University 2 Indian Institute of 20 11.76 Technology 3 National Institute 14 8.235 of Technology 4 Birla College of 10 5.882 Engineering 5 Sundargarh 9 5.294 Engineering College 6 Hiroshima 8 4.706 University 7 Institute of 7 4.118 Physics 8 Hope College 6 3.529 8 Panjab University 6 3.529 9 Bhabha Atomic 5 2.941 Research CTR 9 CAIRO University 5 2.941 10 Anchal College 4 2.353 10 Berhampur 4 2.353 University 10 CSIR 4 2.353

Prolific author during 2007-2011

Table-10 lists the prolific authors of Sambalpur University identified in the study who produced 7 or more papers in the field. On the whole, a total of 707 authors contributed 170 papers during the period under study out of which only 295 contributors affiliated to various departments of the university. Table-10 Most prolific authors Rank Name of No. of Percentage author publication (%) (n=170) 1 B.K. Mishra 28 16.47 2 P.K. 19 11.18 Mohapatra 3 B. Behera 17 10 4 P. Nayak 16 9.412 4 S. Patel 16 9.412 5 T.R. Routray 14 8.235 6 R.N.P. 13 7.647 Choudhury 7 S.K. 12 7.059 Tripathy 8 G. Mohanty 11 6.471 9 S.P. Pati 10 5.882 10 P.K. Mishra 9 5.294 11 S. Dash 8 4.706 11 D.C. Dash 8 4.706 11 S. Ghosh 8 4.706 11 S. Panigrahi 8 4.706 11 S. Sahu 8 4.706 12 B. Biswal 7 4.118

Most prolific department

Out of 170 research output of the university (table-11), Department of Chemistry contributed maximum number of papers with 35.29% during the period under study, followed by Department of Physics with 57 papers; Department of Life Science with 30 papers; Department of Mathematics with 18 papers. Department of Earth Science, Environmental Science, Home Science, Library & Information Science and Statistics each have single contributions. Table-11 Most prolific department Rank Name of the No. of Percentage (%) department contributions 1 Chemistry 60 35.29 2 Physics 57 33.53 3 Life Science 30 17.64 4 Math 18 10.59 5 Earth Science 1 0.59 5 Environmental 1 0.59 Science 6 Home Science 1 0.59 6 Library & 1 0.59 Information Science 6 Statistics 1 0.59 Grand Total 170 100

Geographical distribution of publication during 2007-2011

Distribution of research output by geographical regions illustrates the collaboration of other countries with the researchers/scholars of Sambalpur University. On the whole 170 contributors belonging to India (sambalpur university), the collaborative contributors are from USA with 5.29%, Japan (4.71%), Egypt (2.94%), Austria (1.77%), Canada and South Korea with 0.59% each respectively. Rank Country No. of publication Percentage (%) (N=170) 1 India 170 100 2 USA 9 5.29 3 Japan 8 4.71 4 Egypt 5 2.94 5 Austria 3 1.77 6 Canada 1 0.59 6 South 1 0.59 Korea

Findings/Conclusion

The followings are the key findings of the present study:

1. The publication range of the university ranges between 21 papers to 49 papers during the period with an annual average growth rate percent of 30.53.

2. Maximum number of four authored papers (29.41%) published which is followed by three authors (28.82%), two authors (17.06%), seven or more than seven authored papers (11.18%) etc.

3. A total of 707 authors contributed 170 number of papers out of which 317 authors are affiliated to Sambalpur University and only one paper has single authored which resulted high degree of collaboration (0.99).

4. Chemistry is the most favoured research area followed by Physics (24.12%), Astronomy and Astrophysics (10.59%), Plant Science (10.59%), Engineering (7.65%), Materials Science (7.65%) etc.

5. Astrophysics and Space Science is the most favoured journals for publication among the researchers of the university with 17 (10%) papers, followed by Journal of The Indian Chemical Society with 8 (4.71%) papers and Indian Journal of Chemistry Section A Inorganic Bio Inorganic Physical Theoretical Analytical Chemistry with 6 (3.53%) papers, further it has been observed that these three journals alone consists one third of papers published during the period.

6. Indian Institute of Technologies were the most prolific institution next to Sambalpur University, which is followed by National Institute of Technology, Birla College of Engineering etc.

7. Prof. B.K. Mishra from Department of Chemistry with 28 (16.47%) contributions stood at the 1st position followed by, Prof. P.K. Mohapatra with 19 (11.18%) papers, Prof. B. Behera with 17 (10%) papers.

8. P.G. Department of Chemistry is the most prolific department and all the 707 contributors are scattered among India with 6 foreign countries.

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Rabindra K. Maharana

National Institute of Science Education and Research (NISER), [email protected]

Bipin Bihari sethi

Sambalpur University, [email protected]

Maharana, Rabindra K. and sethi, Bipin Bihari, "A bibliometric analysis of the research output of Sambalpur University's publication in ISI Web of Science during 2007-11" (2013). Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal). Paper 926.

http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/libphilprac/926

Rabindra K. Maharana

Technician (Library)

National Institute of Science Education & Research (NISER)

IOP Campus, Sachivalaya Marg, Sainik School, Bhubaneswar-751005

E-mail: [email protected]

Bipin Bihari Sethi

Professional Assistant

Prof. B. Behera Central Library,

Sambalpur University, Sambalpur-768019

E-mail: [email protected]