A bibliometric sketch on Environmental Science Literature with special reference to India's scenario.

Sethi, Bipin Bihari ; Sahoo, Jyotshna ; Mohanty, Basudev 等

1. Introduction

Environmental science is the study of the interaction of the living and non-living components of the environment with special emphasis on the impact of humans on these components. It provides an integrated, quantitative, and interdisciplinary approach to the study of environmental systems which has become a global motion and mission nowadays. The present study denotes the publication trends of scholarly articles in the literature "Environmental Sciences" that are published in 75 Journals, indexed under Science Direct Database during the period 2004 to 2010. It further examines and presents an analysis of 645 research papers with special reference to Indian scenario. Apart from this various bibliometric attributes such as growth of literature, authorship pattern, geographical distribution of publications, distribution by journal, citation pattern, ranking pattern, and the degree of collaboration are also presented using the formula given by Subramanyam, and Lotka's law.

2. Review of Literature

Karki (1990) through a study entitled "Environmental Science Research in India: An Analysis of Publications" unmasked that, Indian work in environmental science is highly scattered among various organizations. However, a good proportion of the output comes from a few organizations. Contribution of educational institutions is more than the research institutions. Maximum papers are produced by single-authors closely followed by two-author papers. Based on the publications output it can be inferred that Indian environmentalists are mainly engaged on the problems related to health and toxicology, ecology, wastes, and forestry and environment. Though growth of the literature has not been studied, the sudden spurt in literature and interest of investigators in environmental science research are clearly visible. The unusual feature of the Indian environmental science is its coverage mainly in Indian periodicals and largely this is concentrated in few periodicals. Another finding is that, a sizable portion of this literature is spread over non-environmental science journals.

Parent et. al. (2004) in their report "Scientometric Study on Collaboration between India and Canada, 1990-2001 Phase 1 of the 2004 Canada-India Science and Technology (S&T) Mapping Study" pointed out that though India is thought to be a part of the developing world, its scientific output broadly visible in the fields of Biology, Biomedical research, Chemistry, Clinical Medicine, Earth & Space, Engineering & technology, Mathematics and Physics. India managed to implement a strong scientific community, making it the only developing nation present among the top fifteen most important scientific producers. Indian science specializes principally in physics, chemistry and engineering, but does not publish in mainstream international journals that are highly cited. Since India is the second most populated country in the world, millions of Indian students embark on higher education studies, producing more PhD per capita than any other country in the world.

Gupta (2011) in a study entitled "Mapping of Indian Science and Technology Output in a National and Global Context, 1997-2007" pointed out that, India ranked at 12th position among the top 20 productive countries in the world in science and technology. India has shown close similarity in S&T research with countries like Russia, China, South Korea and Taiwan, which have shown, like India, strong emphasis in physical and engineering sciences but are weak in health sciences. Physical Science is the top priority area of S&T research in India, followed by life sciences, engineering sciences and health sciences. Compared to world average output figures by subject, India's national publications share in physical sciences, life sciences and engineering sciences each has been above the global average in the discipline. The policy makers in science and technology needs to ponder over and decide for the future the Research and Development (R&D) priorities that India needs to pursue to lead India as a knowledge economy by 2020.

3. Objectives of the study:

The present study delimits the area with measuring the Environmental Science research productivity from the period 2004-2010 cited at Science Direct Database Top 25 Hottest Articles. The study includes a total of 645 papers from 75 journals and 67 productive countries. The specific objectives of the present study are to determine the:

i. Nature of Authorship pattern in Environmental science literature;

ii. Single Vs Multiple authored papers;

iii. Geographical Distribution of publications;

iv. Publication productivity of India including its states and institutional affiliation;

v. Documentary pattern of publication;

vi. Growth pattern of literature;

vii. Degree of collaboration of authors;

viii. Degree of citation of articles;

ix. Ranking pattern of papers;

x. Segregation of top ranked journals; and

xi. Author productivity pattern.

4. Methodology

Science Direct Database quarterly indexes top 25 hottest published papers in different subject fields. For the present study, thus the top 25 hottest papers in the area of Environmental Science are taken into consideration. All the cited papers from the year 2004-2010 are included in this study, comprising of 645 articles. For each article the details of bibliographic information viz. journal title, article title, 1st author, number of authors, affiliation with institutions, country of origin (considering 1st author), year of publication, number of citations, and ranking pattern have been considered and calculated using the MS-Excel spread sheet. As references counts are not freely available, the authors did not able to analyze reference pattern of the papers. Finally, all relevant data were sorted, tabulated, assimilated, synthesized, analyzed and interpreted in a logical order with an aim to draw inferences for the present work keeping in view the objectives of the study.

5. Limitation of the Study:

The study is limited for the period of 7 years starting from the year 2004 up to the year 2010 of selected top 25 hottest papers in the area of Environmental Science from Science Direct Database quarterly indexes. Altogether the sample having 645 papers out of which only 25 are from Indian contributions. Hence some of the observations made in this study based on the sample data especially for Indian scenario may differ from real scenario due to the small sample size.

6. Results and Discussion:

6.1. Chronological distribution of contributions:

Table 1 presents the chronological distribution of research papers and ensures that, Science Direct Database has enlisted 100 hottest papers each year (except 2004) consisting 4 quarters with 25 papers at each quarter. Since, the enlistment of papers has been initiated by Science Direct from July 2004; it is obvious that there are 2 quarters having 20 and 25 papers for the year 2004 under this subject field and there are altogether 645 papers from the year 20042010. As regards to the contribution of Indian researchers' to this domain it is found that, there is slow growth in Indian research contribution except the year 2005. Out of total Indian output, highest numbers of papers i.e. 28% are contributed in year 2010, followed by 24% in 2009, 16% both in 2006 and 2008, and 12% in 2007 respectively by the Indian scholars to the subject Environmental Science.

6.2. Document type of contributions:

Accounting the sample, it is promulgated that more than 50% of the research papers are 'Article', while next to it, is 'Review Articles' that shares about 36% papers. Although, there are papers from other 5 types of document categories such as: 'Short Survey', 'Mini-Review', 'Opinion', 'Short Communication' and 'Update' etc., they are exiguous as table 2 asserts. Moreover, the table ascertains that, the Indian citations are less scattered among varied document categories rather than the whole citations and clearly states that, Indian papers are confined in two types document categories i.e. 'Article' (56%) and 'Review Article' (44%) as it is reflected from the table.

6.3. Ranking pattern of citations:

Science Direct has enlisted and ranked 25 hottest papers quarterly which are undertaken and examined for the present study. As far as ranking pattern of Indian papers are concerned the highest 28% are ranked in between 21-25, where as 24% papers are in 11-15 and 16-20 ranking categories each, 16% papers are in the rank of 6-10 and lastly a meager 8% papers are at the top rank 1-5 respectively. Table 3 apparently advocates that, less number of papers is at the top rank and more numbers are at the lower rank with respect to Indian contribution. It may be worthwhile to say here that, Indian research productivity would have been an exemplary, if number of contributions could have been decreasing (but in this sample it increases), as compared to the ranking pattern (descending order).

6.4. Lotka's inverse Square Law of Scientific Productivity: Table 4: Number of expected Authors derived (Lotka's inverse Square Law of Scientific Productivity) No. of Considering 1st Author Papers No. of Proportion of No. of Proportion of Authors Observed Authors Authors Expected Authors Observed with respect to Expected with respect to their number their number of of contribution contribution 1 548 0.93 548 0.67 2 22 0.037 137 0.16 3 08 0.013 61 0.07 4 04 0.006 34 0.04 5 02 0.003 22 0.02 6 01 0.001 15 0.01 Total 585 817 No. of Considering all Authors Papers No. of Proportion of No. of Proportion of Authors Observed Authors Authors Expected Authors Observed with respect Expected with respect to their number to number of of contribution contribution 1 2071 0.82 2071 0.67 2 192 0.076 518 0.16 3 84 0.033 230 0.07 4 100 0.039 129 0.04 5 30 0.011 83 0.02 6 30 0.011 58 0.01 Total 2507 3089

Assessment of author productivity is a vital part of the metric study which is also considered for the present article as shown in table 4 and it is observed that the maximum number of authors i.e. 548 out of 585 have contributed single papers each and its proportion is 0.93 which is considered to be quite dominant. Besides, from the observation it is clear that, the number of authors contributed 2, 3 4, 5, and 6 number of papers each, do not fit to the Lotka's inverse Square Law of Scientific Productivity, because there is huge gap between number of authors observed and number of authors expected in relation to their productivity pattern. Supplementing to the study the researchers have also accounted all the contributing authors and their productivity pattern which procreate a value adding domain to the present research and demonstrates that, a majority 2071 number of authors produce single paper each whose proportion 0.82 is dominating overall productivity pattern. As regards to Lotka's inverse law it is clear that, the productivity pattern of contributors mismatches marking a wide gap between observed author productivity and expected author productivity pattern respectively.

6.5. Citation pattern of contributions:

The table 5 evidently advocates the citation pattern of whole research papers as well as Indian contributions. The study proclaims that, highest percentage of 47.90% (i.e. 309 out of N=645) papers have had less than 25 citations (>=1<25), followed by 19.84% (i.e. 128 out of N=645) with 25-49 (>=25<50) citations, 10.69% (i.e. 69 out of N=645) having more than 100 (>=100) citations and about 10% papers gets citations 50-99 (>=50<75 & >=75<100) respectively. Besides, it has been noticed that, 12% papers have no citations at all.

So far as the citation pattern of Indian contributions (N=25) is concerned highest 44% papers have had citations less than 25 citations (>=1<25), 20% papers have citations between 75-99 (>=75<100) where as another 20% have more than 100 (>=100) citations, 8% papers have 25-49 (>=25<50) citations respectively. Moreover, 8% of Indian papers are found having no citations. In conclusion, it may be justifiable to say that, Indian papers are most noteworthy, because 92% Indian papers are cited as compared to the total contributions of which approximately 88% papers are cited.

6.6. Authorship pattern of citations:

Authorship pattern is important in order to determine the degree of collaboration of research in an area of study. That is why the researchers have made an effort to devise the degree of collaboration of research in the field of environmental science. The table 6 unfolds that, 2, 3 and 4 authored papers are highly dominating over other forms of authorship pattern contributing 30.54%, 18.29% and 15.81% papers to whole citations respectively, while only 13.02% papers are detected to be single authored. Addressing the Indian contributions regarding authorship pattern the table shows that 2 and 3 authored papers are dominating that accounts for 40% and 24% papers respectively.

It is noticed from the degree of collaboration that, multi authorship papers are dominating over single authored papers with regard to whole contribution which is also identical with that of Indian authorship pattern. It is also observed that the proportion of Indian multi authorship (0.92) is higher than the whole paper multi authorship (0.86).

As a whole, both the results of degree of collaboration signify that, research is admittedly a collective and collaborative practice rather than an individual effort.

6.7. Contribution of Indian Publications: Table 7: Institution and State wise contribution of Indian Publications Sl. Name of the Institution Number of Name of No. Contributions State 1 Guru Jambheshwar University 04(16%) Haryana of Science & Technology 2 IIT Roorkee 03(12%) UP IIT Kanpur 01(4%) 3 National Institute for 02(8%) Kerala Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) Amala Institute of Medical 01(4%) Sciences 4 National Environmental 01(4%) Maharashtra Engineering Bhabha Atomic Research Centre 01(4%) Pune University 01(4%) 5 IIT Kharagpur 02(8%) West Bengal University of Calcutta 01(4%) 6 IIT Delhi 02(8%) Delhi 7 National Institute for Plant 02(8%) Odisha Biodiversity Conservation and Research 8 Indian Institute of Chemical 01(4%) Andhra Pradesh Technology 9 Tezpur University 01(4%) Assam 10 Bhilai Steel Plant 01(4%) Bihar 11 Anna University 01(4%) Tamilnadu Sl. Name of the Institution Number of No. Contribution 1 Guru Jambheshwar University 04(16%) of Science & Technology 2 IIT Roorkee 04(16%) IIT Kanpur 3 National Institute for 03(12%) Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) Amala Institute of Medical Sciences 4 National Environmental 03(12%) Engineering Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Pune University 5 IIT Kharagpur 03(12%) University of Calcutta 6 IIT Delhi 02(8%) 7 National Institute for Plant 02(8%) Biodiversity Conservation and Research 8 Indian Institute of Chemical 01(4%) Technology 9 Tezpur University 01(4%) 10 Bhilai Steel Plant 01(4%) 11 Anna University 01(4%)

Addressing the geographical distribution of Indian papers among the Indian states and the papers affiliation to varied institutions the table 7 denotes that, there are 11 productive states of India among which Haryana and U. P. are most prolific states having highest number of contributions i. e., 16% each, followed by Kerala, Maharashtra and West Bengal each with 12% papers, while Delhi (8%), Odisha (8%) and remaining 4 states such as: Andhra Pradesh, Assam,

Bihar and Tamilnadu distinctively provided each 4% research papers each. Nevertheless, among the Indian affiliated institutions Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology (Haryana), IIT Roorkee (U. P.) are found top ranking productive institutions with identical share 16% and 12%. Besides, there are 4 more prominent institutions such as: National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST) of Kerala, IIT Kharagpur (West Bengal), IIT Delhi (Delhi), and National Institute for Plant Biodiversity Conservation and Research (Odisha) contributed 8% papers each and rest 10 institutions participated adding each 4% papers to the domain of environmental Science.

6.8. Country-wise participation to whole citation: Table 8: Country-wise participation to whole citation Sl. No. Name of Country No. of Percentage C. F. contribution 1 USA 179 27.75 27.75 2 UK 75 11.62 39.37 3 Australia 37 5.73 45.1 4 France 32 4.96 50.06 5 Canada 27 4.18 54.24 6 Spain 26 4.03 58.27 7th India 25 3.87 62.14 8 Germany 22 3.41 65.55 9 China 20 3.10 68.65 10 The Netherlands 19 2.94 71.59 11 Italy 14 2.17 73.76 12 Switzerland 14 2.17 75.93 13 Sweden 10 1.55 77.48 14 Turkey 9 1.39 78.87 15 Belgium 8 1.24 80.11 16 Japan 8 1.24 81.35 17 Denmark 7 1.08 82.43 18 Finland 7 1.08 83.51 19 Ireland 7 1.08 84.59 20 Norway 6 0.93 85.52 21 Slovakia 6 0.93 86.45 22 Colombia 5 0.77 87.22 23 Greece 5 0.77 87.99 24 Korea 5 0.77 88.76 25 Others(43) 72 11.16 99.99 Total (67) 645 * *

Study of the geographical scattering of publications proactively determines the strength and weakness of the productive countries which is intensively portrayed in the table 8. The study discovers that, USA is the most prolific country with a commanding research production of 27.75% among other productive nations. Besides, UK, Australia, France, Canada and Spain posed 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th position contributing 11.62%, 5.73%, 4.96%, 4.18% and 4.03% papers to their credit. Moreover, India is found to have 7th rank having its share 3.87% to the whole contribution, while other 60 participative regions collectively added 36.87% research productions as a whole.

6.9. Journal-wise mapping of whole contribution: Table 9: Journal-wise mapping of whole contribution SL. No. Name of Journal No. of Contributions 1 Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE) 167 2 Bio-resource Technology (BT) 75 3 Water Research (WR) 37 4 Analytica Chimica Acta (ACA) 30 5 Energy Policy (EP) 20 6 Biological Conservation (BC) 19 7 Atmospheric Environment (AE) 18 8 Mutation Research/Fundamental and 18 Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis (MRFMMM) 9 Ecological Modelling (EM) 17 10 Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) 15 11 Journal of Hazardous Materials (JHM) 15 12 Ecological Economics (EE) 14 13 Ecological Indicators (EI) 14 14 Forest Ecology and Management (FEM) 14 15 Environmental Pollution (EP) 11 16 Annals of Nuclear Energy (ANE) 10 17 Journal of Cleaner Production (JCP) 10 18 Journal of Env. Management (JEM) 10 19 Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 9 (AEE) 20 Chemico-Biological Interactions (CBI) 9 21 Remote Sensing of Environment (RSE) 9 22 Soil Biology and Biochemistry (SBB) 9 23 Others (53 Journals) 95 SL. No. Name of Journal % C. F. 1 Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE) 25.89 25.89 2 Bio-resource Technology (BT) 11.62 37.51 3 Water Research (WR) 5.73 43.24 4 Analytica Chimica Acta (ACA) 4.65 47.89 5 Energy Policy (EP) 3.1 50.99 6 Biological Conservation (BC) 2.94 53.93 7 Atmospheric Environment (AE) 2.79 56.72 8 Mutation Research/Fundamental and 2.79 59.51 Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis (MRFMMM) 9 Ecological Modelling (EM) 2.63 62.14 10 Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) 2.32 64.46 11 Journal of Hazardous Materials (JHM) 2.32 66.78 12 Ecological Economics (EE) 2.17 68.95 13 Ecological Indicators (EI) 2.17 71.12 14 Forest Ecology and Management (FEM) 2.17 73.29 15 Environmental Pollution (EP) 1.7 74.99 16 Annals of Nuclear Energy (ANE) 1.55 76.54 17 Journal of Cleaner Production (JCP) 1.55 78.09 18 Journal of Env. Management (JEM) 1.55 79.64 19 Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment 1.39 81.03 (AEE) 20 Chemico-Biological Interactions (CBI) 1.39 82.42 21 Remote Sensing of Environment (RSE) 1.39 83.81 22 Soil Biology and Biochemistry (SBB) 1.39 85.2 23 Others (53 Journals) 14.72 99.92

Journal-wise mapping of literature in the field of Environmental Science has also been depicted through the present research shown at table 9. The study reflects that, the journal "Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE)" plays a commendable role having a distinguished share i. e., 167 (25.89%) among 75 productive journals, while the journal Bio-resource Technology (BT), Water Research (WR) and Analytica Chimica Acta (ACA) are found to have at the rank of 2nd, 3rd and 4th with respective contribution 11.62%, 5.73% and 4.65%respectively. In addition, the journals categorically produces literature such as: "Energy Policy (EP)" (3.10%), "Biological Conservation (BC)" (2.94%), "Atmospheric Environment (AE)" and "Mutation Research/Fundamental and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis (MRFMMM)" each (2.79%), "Ecological Modeling (EM)" (2.63%), "Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT)" (2.32%) "and Journal of Hazardous Materials (JHM)" equally contributed each (2.32%), following "Ecological Economics (EE)", "Ecological Indicators (EI)", and "Forest Ecology and Management (FEM)" added 2.17% research products each identically. Apart from these, other 61 participative journals contributed less than 2% papers each and posed as a share holder in Environmental Science scholarly communication.

6.10. Top Ranked Journals:

The present study is consisting of total 645 papers which were published in 75 journals. Out of 75 journals only two (2.66%) journals namely 'Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE)' and 'Bio-resource Technology (BT)' have published collectively more than 1/3 of contributions (37.51% i.e. 242 out of N-645), however 11 journals (14.66%) produced 33.64% (217 out of N=645) of literature, followed by a large number of 62 journals (82.66%) produced only 28.84% (186 out of N=645) contributions.

6.11. Top 10 Countries v/s top ranked Journals: Table: 11: Contribution of top 10 Countries to top ranked Journals Sl. Top Ranked Top 10 Countries Journals No (n=10) USA UK Australia France Canada Spain 1 TEE 46 16 06 09 06 07 2 BT 20 12 4 1 3 3 3 WR 10 2 7 2 1 2 4 ACA 5 5 3 1 3 3 5 EP 3 3 2 2 2 1 6 BC 3 3 2 0 2 1 7 AE 1 7 1 1 0 0 8 MRFMMM 1 2 2 1 1 0 9 EM 4 2 1 2 0 0 10 FCT 4 1 0 5 0 0 Total 97 53 28 24 18 17 Sl. Top Ranked Top 10 Countries Total Journals No (n=10) India Germany China Netherlands 1 TEE 05 10 10 06 121 2 BT 2 0 3 3 51 3 WR 0 0 3 2 29 4 ACA 1 1 0 0 22 5 EP 0 1 0 0 14 6 BC 0 0 1 0 12 7 AE 1 0 1 0 12 8 MRFMMM 0 1 0 1 9 9 EM 1 2 0 0 12 10 FCT 0 0 0 0 10 Total 10 15 18 12 292

It is worthwhile to measure top 10 Countries' contribution to top ranked journals in the present study. As shown in table 11, USA being the most prolific productive country has contributed highest number of papers (46) to the most prolific journal 'TEE', following the papers published by journals such as: 'BT' (20), 'WR' (10), 'ACA' (5) and in journal 'EM', 'FCT' 4 papers each, while in 'EP', 'BC' journals 3 papers each and 1 paper each in the journals 'AE' as well as 'MRFMMM' respectively. As far as other top 9 nations' contributions are concerned, except 'Australia', all 8 countries such as: UK, France, Canada, Spain, India, Germany, China and Netherlands have highest number of papers in most productive journal 'TEE' and contribution to other journals are relatively meager. Overall, it is depicted that, USA, UK, Australia, France, Canada, Spain have contributed 97, 53, 28, 24, 18, 17 number of papers to top 10 journals, whereas India contributed only 10 papers which is less as compared to Germany, China and Netherlands who got 8th, 9th and 10th rank having more contribution to top 10 journals, but their total contribution is less than Indian. That is why India got 7th rank.

6.12. Chronological scattering of papers by top 10 Countries:

Chronological distribution of research productivity among top 10 countries as reflected in table 12 shows that, 2006 is the most remarkable productive year for 'USA', and Canada, while 2005 is for 'UK', 2010 for 'Australia', 'Spain' and 'India', 2009 for 'France', 2007 and 2008 for 'Germany', 2008 for 'China' and 'Netherlands' respectively having highest number of contributions in the mentioned years rather than other productive years. Further, it is ascertained that, chronological scattering of publication productivity in case of 'USA', 'Australia', 'Germany', and 'Netherlands' are found on an average parallel, while 'UK', 'Canada' and 'China' shows negative trend, but the remaining countries such as: 'France', 'Spain' and 'India' indicates a growing trend as well.

6.13. Chronological scattering of papers by top 10 Journals:

The chronological distribution of papers produced by top 10 journals as tabulated above envisages that, the journal 'TEE' is the only leading contributor having highest number of papers i. e. 100 during the year 2008 which predominates all other ranked journals in the discipline of Environmental Sciences. By and large, the journals 'BT' and 'BC' contributed equal number of papers in 2005, while 'WR', 'ACC', and 'EP' have considerable contributions categorically in the years 2009, 2004, and 2006 respectively. Adjoining to these journals remaining 4 such as: 'AE', 'MRFMMM', 'EM' and 'FCT aggregated their major share during the productive years 2005, 2007, 2006 and 2010 respectively. In conclusion it is disclosed that, except the journal 'FCT' all the top 9 journals are denoting an adverse trend in their contribution at each successive chronological productive sessions the above table connotes.

7. Major Findings

Some of the key findings of the present study that deserve mention are as under:

i. As regards to the contribution of Indian researchers' to the domain of Environmental Science it is found that, there is slow growth in Indian research production. Out of whole Indian share, 2010 is the most productive year with a contribution of 28% papers.

ii. It is promulgated from table 2 that, more than 50% of the research papers are 'Article'.

iii. As far as ranking pattern of Indian papers are concerned the highest 28% Indian contributions are assigned 21-25 rank, while a meager 8% of Indian papers appears at the rank 1-5.

iv. Authors' productivity does not fit to the Lotka's inverse Square Law of Scientific Productivity as reflected in table 4.

v. The table 6 reflects the citation pattern of total research papers as well as Indian contributions. It is to be noted that, the non-cited papers from India are lesser in number than the non-cited papers of total contributions. Hence it signifies that, maximum numbers of Indian papers are cited by others as compared to total publications.

vi. Degree of collaboration of whole papers and Indian papers both apparently address that, research is a collaborative work, rather than an Individual activity.

vii. Addressing the geographical distribution of Indian papers among the Indian states and the papers affiliation to varied institutions the table 7 denotes that, there are 11 productive states of India among which Haryana and U. P. are most prolific states having highest numbers of contributions i. e. 16% each. Nevertheless, among the Indian affiliated institutions Guru Jambheshwar University of Science & Technology (Haryana), IIT Roorkee (U. P.) are found top ranking productive institutions with identical share 16% and 12%.

viii. The study reveals that, USA is the most prolific country with an outstanding research production of 27.75% among other productive nations, while India is found to have the distinction of 7th rank with 3.87% contributions.

ix. The study unfolds that, the journal "Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE)" plays a commendable role having a distinguished share i. e. 167 (25.89%) among 75 productive journals.

x. Out of 75 journals only two (2.66%) journals namely 'Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE)' and 'Bio-resource Technology (BT)' collectively published more than 1/3 of papers (37.51% i.e. 242 out of N-645) which vigorously caused to be designated as top ranked journals.

xi. As shown in table 11, USA being the most prolific productive country has contributed highest number of papers (46) to the most prolific journal 'TEE'.

xii. 2006 is the most remarkable productive year for 'USA', while 2010 is best productive year for India.

xiii. The journal 'TEE' is considered the only leading and dominating journal with highest number of papers i. e. 100 during the year 2008 at a comparative perspective with all other journals in the discipline of Environmental Sciences the study addresses.

8. Conclusion:

The journals namely 'Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE)' and 'Bio-resource Technology (BT)' have collectively published more than 1/3 literature i.e. 37.51% papers out of 75 journals which may be considered as the two top ranked journals in the field of Environmental Science. The present study reflects that USA is the most prolific country that contributes about 27.75% scholarly papers in the field of Environmental Science, while India is found to have the distinction of 7th rank with 3.87% contributions among other productive nations. Year-wise data exhibits that 2006 is the most remarkable productive year for 'USA', while 2010 is the most productive year for India. The growth of scientific output of India specifically in the field of Environmental Science is found considerably slow as the study unfolds. Indian Environmental Science papers principally placed in top 10 International journals, which cover 40 percent of the whole share. Though India is the second most populated country in the world, yet it has not been occupied a very appealing place in environmental science research productivity in the global arena, but enviably marked as a leading producer in Asia with contributing 25 (3.87%) papers, which determines 7th rank in globe, followed by China who placed 9th rank in world, 2nd rank in Asia producing 20 (3.10%) papers respectively. The findings of the present study will be helpful to know India's contribution towards Environmental Science and it will encourage the environmental scientists to put their best effort to the field.

References:

1. Bensman, Stephen J. (1982). Bibliometrics Laws and Library Usage as a social phenomena. Library Research, 4(3), 279-312.

2. Gupta, B. M. (2011). Mapping of Indian Science and Technology output in a National and Global Context, 1997-2007. Library Philosophy and Practice, 2011. [online at: http://unllib.unl.edu/LPP/]

3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_education [visited on 8th February 2014]

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_science [visited on 8th February 2014]

5. http://www.science-metrix.com/eng/reports.htm [visited on 9th February 2014]

6. Karki, M. M. S. (1990). Environmental Science Research in India: An Analysis of Publications. Scientometrics, 18 (5-6), 363-373.

7. Mahapatra, G. (2009). Bibliometrics Study: In the Internet Era. 2nd ed. New Delhi: Indiana Publishing House, 2009

8. Parent, A., Bertrand, F., Cote, G. and Archambault, E. (2004). Scientometric Study on Collaboration between India and Canada, 1990-2001 Phase 1 of the 2004 Canada-India S&T Mapping Study. Science-Metrix: Scientometric Study [http://www.science-metrix.com/pdf/SM_2003_009_DFAIT_Indo Canadian_S&T_Collaboration.pdf visited on 25th February 2014/

9. Rajendhiran, P. and Parihar, Y. S. (2007). A bibliometric study of laser literature in India--1995-2005. Annals of Library and Information Studies, Vol. 54, June 2007, 112-118.

10. Subramanyam, K. (1981). Lotka's Law and Library Literature. Library Research, 3, 167070

Bipin Bihari Sethi

Central Library, Sambalpur University, Jyotivihar-768019, Burla (Odisha), India,

Email: [email protected], Ph. 91-7377136122 (M)

Dr. Jyotshna Sahoo

Lecturer, P. G. Department of Library and Information Science, Sambalpur University,

Jyotivihar-768019, Burla (Odisha), India, Email: [email protected] Ph.91-9437922397 (M)

Basudev Mohanty

Assistant Librarian, Central Library, Indian Institute of Technology,

Bhubaneswar-7510007, Odisha, India, Email: [email protected], Ph.91-9437132870 (M) Table 1: Year-wise scattering of contributions Year Distribution of Distribution of Total No. of Papers Indian contribution [N=645] [N=25] 2004 45(6.97%) 1(4%) 2005 100(15.50%) 0 2006 100(15.50%) 4(16%) 2007 100(15.50%) 3(12%) 2008 100(15.50%) 4(16%) 2009 100(15.50%) 6(24%) 2010 100(15.50%) 7(28%) Table 2: Document-wise identification of contribution Document type Total No. of Indian Papers [N=645] Contributions [N=25] Article 369(57.20%) 14(56%) Review Article 231(35.81%) 11(44%) Short Survey 29(4.49%) -- Mini-Review 7(1.08%) -- Opinion 5(0.77%) -- Short communication 3(0.46%) -- Update 1(0.15%) -- Table 3: Rank-wise presentation of citation Ranking Total No. of Indian pattern Papers [N=645] Contributions Top 1-5 130(20.15%) 2(8%) Top 6-10 130(20.15%) 4(16%) Top 11-15 130(20.15%) 6(24%) Top 16-20 130(20.15%) 6(24%) Top 21-25 125(19.37%) 7(28%) Table 5: Citation pattern of contributions Citation Total Have Citation Indian Have pattern contribution contribution Citation [N=645] >=100 69(10.69%) Approximately 5(20%) 92% >=75<100 21(3.25%) 88% 5(20%) >=50<75 40(6.20%) -- >=25<50 128(19.84%) 2(8%) Less than 25 309(47.90%) 11(44%) No citation 78(12.09%) Approximately 2(8%) 8% 12% Table 6: Authorship pattern of citation Authorship Total Degree of pattern contribution Collaboration [N=645] Single Author 84(13.02%) 0.86 Two Authors 197(30.54%) Three Authors 118(18.29%) Four Authors 102(15.81%) Five Authors 46(7.13%) Six Authors 35(5.42%) Seven Authors 23(3.56%) Eight Authors 10(1.55%) Nine Authors 08(1.24%) Ten Authors 02(0.31%) More than Ten 20(3.10%) Authors Authorship Indian Degree of pattern contribution Collaboration Single Author 02(8%) 0.92 Two Authors 10(40%) Three Authors 06(24%) Four Authors 03(12%) Five Authors 01(4%) Six Authors 02(8%) Seven Authors -- Eight Authors -- Nine Authors 01(4%) Ten Authors -- More than Ten -- Authors Table: 10: Distribution of Papers in Journals Zones No. of Distribution Journals of Papers Observed (Approx. 1/3 of No. % No. % contributions) First 02 2.66% 242 37.51% Second 11 14.66% 217 33.64% Third 62 82.66% 186 28.84% Table: 12: Chronological scattering of papers by top 10 Countries SI. Country No. Year-wise Contribution of Top 10 Countries 2004 2005 2006 2007 1 USA 13 30 33 23 2 UK 7 20 15 7 3 Australia 4 6 7 4 4 France 1 1 5 6 5 Canada 2 5 6 4 6 Spain 2 2 2 6 7# India# 1# *# 4# 3# 8 Germany * 2 3 5 9 China * 4 2 3 10 The Netherlands 3 3 3 2 Total 33 73 80 63 Year-wise SI. Country Contribution Total No. of Top 10 Countries 2008 2009 2010 1 USA 24 29 27 179 2 UK 9 8 9 75 3 Australia 3 5 8 37 4 France 3 9 7 32 5 Canada 5 2 3 27 6 Spain 2 4 8 26 7# India# 4# 6# 7# 25# 8 Germany 5 3 4 22 9 China 7 3 1 20 10 The Netherlands 4 2 2 19 Total 66 71 76 462 # Bold Table 13: Chronological scattering of papers by top 10 Journals Sl. Journals Year-wise No. Contribution of Top 10 Journals 2004 2005 2006 1 Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE) * * * 2 Bio-resource Technology (BT) * 37 * 3 Water Research (WR) * * * 4 Analytica Chimica Acta (ACC) 24 * * 5 Energy Policy (EP) * * 20 6 Biological Conservation (BC) * 14 * 7 Atmospheric Environment (AE) 2 11 * 8 Mutation Research/Fundamental * * * and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis (MRFMMM) 9 Ecological Modelling (EM) * * 14 10 Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) * * 3 Total 26 62 37 Sl. Journals Year-wise No. Contribution of Top 10 Journals 2007 2008 2009 1 Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE) 24 100 29 2 Bio-resource Technology (BT) * * 8 3 Water Research (WR) * * 27 4 Analytica Chimica Acta (ACC) * * 1 5 Energy Policy (EP) * * * 6 Biological Conservation (BC) * * 1 7 Atmospheric Environment (AE) * * 4 8 Mutation Research/Fundamental 17 * * and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis (MRFMMM) 9 Ecological Modelling (EM) * * 2 10 Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) * * 5 Total 41 100 77 Sl. Journals Year-wise Total No. Contribution of Top 10 Journals 2010 1 Trends in Ecology & Evolution (TEE) 14 167 2 Bio-resource Technology (BT) 30 75 3 Water Research (WR) 10 37 4 Analytica Chimica Acta (ACC) 5 30 5 Energy Policy (EP) * 20 6 Biological Conservation (BC) 4 19 7 Atmospheric Environment (AE) 1 18 8 Mutation Research/Fundamental 1 18 and Molecular Mechanisms of Mutagenesis (MRFMMM) 9 Ecological Modelling (EM) 1 17 10 Food and Chemical Toxicology (FCT) 7 15 Total 73 416