Annals of Library Science and Documentation 1985,32(34),
99-108
FOREIGN SCIENTISTS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO INDIAN
SCIENTIFIC PERIODICALS: A SAMPLE STUDY OF
INDIAN SCIENCE ABSTRACTS
NARENPRA KUMAR
VED B. KOCHHAR
INSDOC
New Delhi 110067
Analyses the sample data from (July 1982 June 1984) the issues of Indian Science Abstracts in respect of foreign scientists' contributions published
in Indian periodicals and
their subject scatter. Identifies
core Indian
periodicals in science and technology and makes
out a case for improving the quality and editorial standard of Indian periodicals for attracting more foreign contributions.
tion trends [4] has, however, shown a significant cross-country publishing activity. In
this context, a review of the quality of publications has shown that the 'ignorance explosion'
among the developing countries is mainly
due to latter's emphasis on quantity rather than
quality in the process of information gathering.
With the above facts in view, it was decided
to take up the p(esent study with the following
main objectives:
INTRODUCTION
Periodicals are regarded as an important communication channel for the dissemination of
research in information and are indispensable
for scientists engaged in research and development and/or teaching activities. It has been
estimated that about 55,000 scientific periodicals are currently being published in the world
[1], the number of Indian scientific periodicals has been estimated at about 2,000. Indian
Science Abstracts (ISA) run by INSDOC, until
recently a monthly abstracting service.", covers
around 600 Indian periodicals. Out of a total
of 1593 Indian Scientific periodicals listed
in the Directory of Indian Scientific periodi
cals [2], only 26 are included for coverage in
Science Citation Index [3], which is an international indexing service for science covering
over 2,700 periodicals, as per the criteria of
latter's usefulness in furthering scientific knowledge and their publication punctuality. A word
about information generation, gathering and
its publishing in the modern context seems
pertinent here. The former has invariably
been affected by an increasing trend for 'protectionism' due to world politics among nations, with the result that scientists are obliged
to publish in periodicals originating in their
respective countries. This is time of both socialist and capitalist blocks. A study of publica-
a) To obtain an overall perspective of contributions of foreign scientists in Indian
periodicals.
b) To identify core Indian periodicals in various
scientific disciplines publishing foreign contributions (Appendix 1).
c) To identify scientific disciplines in which
majority of foreign contributions are published in Indian periodicals.
d) To identify the subject disciplines/subdisciplines in which more new journals
could be started.
e) To ascertain any possible relationship
between foreign scientists' contributions
in Indian periodicals and the quality/impact
of scientific literature output and scope for
improvement of quality.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE
TIONAL OUTLOOK
INTERNA-
Every scientist is motivated by the usage for
quick announcement and speedy communication of his research work with the aim of establishing or maintaining intellectual property
rights. The most effective media for scientific
"Sinc« Jan. 19R5, ISA is being puhlish cd as semimonthly.
NARENDRA KUMAR & KOCHHAR
communications are the journals and conference abstracting services. It was also intended to
and seminar proceedings. In developing coun- serve as a comprehensive inventory of the
tries, the media for communication are not as scientific contributions by Indian scientists,
highly developed as in some developed countries including short communications, review and
and this accounts for a major portion of re- informative articles published in scientific and
search output being published in the journals technical periodicals, proceedings of conferences
of advanced countries. Since Scientific literature
and symposia, monographs, theses from various
is largely international, one can make reasonable Indian universities. Indian standards and patents
international comparisons of publication acti- are also covered. Each monthly issue has about
vity. It is observed that scientists and research 2,000 entries. As a national abstracting service
workers in advanced countries tend to publish for the Indian scientific literature ISA claims
their scientific works in their own countries to make a comprehensive coverage of the
due to cultural or language bias against this, core Indian Periodicals publishing the contriscientists in developing countries have a strong butions of both Indian and foreign scientists
tendency to publish their contributions in and therefore serves as an excellent source of
reputed journals in developed countries, so study of the contributions of foreign scientists
that their work may attract the attention of to the Indian periodical literature.
scientists the world over. Since most of the
scientists are concerned with only a few jour- METHODOLOGY
nals of their subject interest, they develop a
In order to collect data on foreign authors'
bias against other journals emanating from other
contributions in Indian periodicals, all issues
countries. For this reason, scientists from
of ISA from July 1982 to June 1984 viz. Vol.
English speaking countries have a tendency to
18(7) to Vol. 20(6) were scanned entry wise for
publish mostly in journals from USA and UK
the purpose of identifying such contributions,
which are in English language.
each entry was judged on basis of the author's
In the case of India, Mehrotra and LancasInstitutions/organisation
and the country of
ter [6] observed from the coverage of SCI
origin. In the case of entries where the author's
data base that 58% of Indian research results
address was missing in the bibliographic details
are being published in periodicals of other
of the entry, the approach adopted was to go
countries, mainly USA, UK, Germany etc.
in for ascertaining the same from the primary
A study by Rangarajan and Gupta [7]
periodical in which the article by a foreign
based on the coverage in Physics Abstracts,
author appeared. The data were collected
revealed that more than 50% of articles by
on 5 x 3 cards representing the bibliographical
Indian authors in nuclear physics and other
information about the nature of the primary
branches of physics were being published in
publication, full address of the author, year of
foreign periodicals. A generous estimate of
publication and subject headings. A total of
India's contribution to the total world output
1,595 entries represented foreign scientists'
of literature in science, technology, medicine
contributions out of a total of 29,554 entries
and agriculture cannot be more than 3% and
scanned for periodical articles.
this includes contributions in both Indian and
foreign journals [8] .
ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE
DATA
ISA AS A SOURCE FOR THE STUDY
An analysis of 1,595 foreign research papers
Indian Science Abstracts (ISA) was started by found to have been published in Indian scientiINSOOC in 1965 with the objective of pro- fic periodicals was done for subject scatter,
jecting a national abstracting service having countrywise scatter in different subjects and
adequate coverage of the contribution of Indian overall ranking of scientific periodicals.
Data in Table 1 covcrs the 1,595 papers
and foreign scientists in Indian periodicals and
utiliscd bv foreign scientists in 197 Indian
to act as a feeder service to the international
100
FOREIGN SCIENTISTS' CONTRIBUTIONS
periodicals and 17 proceedings of conferences,
seminars, etc. These contributions originated
from 6'0 countries.
As seen from Table 1 maximum contributions (viz. 289 papers) in 21 Indian periodicals
were received in chemistry, crystallography,
mineralogy group of subjects followed by
mathematics (231 papers) in Ie periodicals,
physics & mechanics (209 papers) in 32 periodicals, medical & Health sciences (183 papers) in
53 periodicals and biology, anthropology (115
papers) in 29 Indian periodicals. It is interesting
to note that the maximum number of countries
(41) from where foreign authors contributed
to the Indian periodicals was in mathematics.
This was followed by medical and health sciences (40 countries) engineering & technology
(34 countries), biology, anthropology
(33
countries) physics & mechanics (32 countries)
and chemistry,
crystallography,
mineralogy
(30 countries).
In Table 2, countries have been arranged in
the descending order according to the number
of papers contributed
by foreign scientists
hailing from them.
It is seen that of the first five countries
providing a sufficient member of contributions
for publication in Indian periodicals, four (viz,
USA, UK, Japan and Canada) are highly developed countries in various branches of science
Table 1: Breakdown of Subject Scatter.
------------------------------------------------------No. of
No.
of
No. of
Subject
S1. No. UOC
countries
covering
the papers
Class
periodicals
publishing
papers
published
papers
---------------------------------------------------------1.
Mathematics
41
9
32
30
21
6
33
20
20
40
34
27
18
8
32
21
19
5
29
15
16
47
53
36
231
33
209
289
60
6
115
40
38
183
182
88
5
5
6
12.
.51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
61
62
63
13.
65
14.
66
Chemical Industry, Chemical
Technology
26
31
83
15.
67
Manufactures,
Industries & Crafts
10
12
30
16.
68
Specialised Trades,
Crafts & Industries.
2
2
2
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9
10.
11.
Astronomy, Surveying, Geodesy
physics & Mechanics
Chemistry, Crystallography, Minrology
Geology, Merereology
Palaeontology
Biology, Anthropology
Botany
Zoology
Medical Sciences, Health & Safety
Engineering
&
Technology, Generally
Agriculture, Forestry, Stockbreeding,
Fisheries
Commercial, Official, Business
Techniques, Management
Communications, Transport
-------------------------------------------~-----------V,,112 Nos 1·4 Sl'ptcllllwr-lkc('mbcr
19R5
101
Table 2: Countrywise scatter of papers in different subjects (Represented
as UDC numbers)
i":"
s.
, 51'
COuntry
No.
1
u, s,
2
E GYP
3
U.
A.
52 '
72
13
30
x,
-
12
4
J A PAN
5
CANADA
'1'
53'
54
54
24
'
55 ' 56
13
37 180
6
10
12
14
7
18
1
7
5
25
-
13
3
' 57 '
58 ~S~6~62
' 63
' 65
' 66
2
11
3
19
12
11
5
3
2
12
59
27
14
-
1
6
11
5
5
1
3
34
32
1
6
2
1
7
21
2
1
5
1
-
7
14
1
-
7
1
1
-
-- -
33
11
3
,
-
1
1
-
-
' 67
2
' 68
1
--
' '1'0- '
Perte 1 Cent~
350
21.91"
311
19.47"
147
9.20%
76
4.75"
73
4.57"
.-- -------._------.-.----.----------------------._-.-_.-------------------------~------------------------------.--------------------------------.
- - - - ---- -- - - - -- - - - .---------------------------------~--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - -- -- --- --- --- - -- - --- -- -- - - - -- --- - --- --._-------------.------------------------------------------------------------------~--------------------------------------------------------- - -- -- - --- ----- -- -- - -- - -- -- - - - - -- - - - - ._-------------------------------------------.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - - - - -~
--- - -- - - -- -->
6
7
8
A U S T R A L I A
W. G E R MAN Y
U. S. S. R.
11
4
1
2
5
-
-
1
6
5
9
- - -
12
5
9
4
1
9
10
BANGLADESH
N I G E R I A
1
8
9
5
1
1
3
1
11
12
13
14
15
I R A 0
SRI
LANKA
SAUDI ARABIA
FRANCE
1
1
2
1
6
1
7
4
2
2
ITALY
1
16
17
THAILAND
S WIT
Z E R LAN
18
19
20
SINGAPORB
PAKIS'l'AN
NEWZEALAND
~
21
22
23
24
25
I R A R
KUWAI'l'
POLAND
LIB
Y A
IiETHERLAND
26
27
28
BRA
Z I L
MALAYSIA
« 42 ) COUNTRIES
D
1
1
1
4
1
1
4
4
2
1
1
6
2
7
7
2
1
4
1
1
1
1
2
1
4
3
2
1
1
1
1
3
1
2
13
1
4
1
15
13
1
1
8
7
1
5
1
4
6
1
1
4
1
1
1
23
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
2
1
1
1
1
>
39
2.44"
2.20%
Z
28
22
20
18
1
1
16
15
0.93"
2
2
15
14
12
0.93"
0.87"
0.75"
12
12
12
11
11
0.75"
0.75"
0.75"
3
1
10
10
174
2
8
; -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
r
cr
Vl
o
'-"
..,
231
33
209 289
60
6
115
40
38
183
182
88
6
1.75"
1.37"
1.25"
1.12"
1.06"
17
4
20
3.44"
2.50%
2.50%
1
1
3
16
55
40
40
35
1
1
4
2
3
2
6
2
1
4
4
1
1
2
1
1
1
2
3
24
1
1
2
2
4
1
5
1
3
2
14
6
3
1
2
5
2
24
3
3
2
2
1
2
2
2
1
5
3
3
1
6
12
2
- -
6
7
3
2
2
1
1
3
1
4
1
83
30
2
1595
1.00%
0.6""
Ow6""
0.62%
0.62"
10.90%
z
~
~
~
>
~
C
~
>~
~
~
o
n
==
>~
- FOREIGN SCIENTISTS' CONTRIBUTIONS
and technology. USA tops the list with the followed by groups with 6.55, 4.48, 3.61%
maximum contribution i.e, 350 papers (21.91%) contributions.
the highest number of papers, (72) in mathemaA persual of Table 3 shows that there are
tics. Next in the order is Egypt with a total of at least 25 Indian periodicals in which 10
311 papers (19.5%); of these, 180 papers are or more foreign contributions in various scientiin chemistry - crystallography -mineralogy fic disciplines have been published. Indian
group.
journal of Chemistry published the maximum
Thus, it is observed that in chemistry-crys- number of papers (164) by foreign scientists
tallography group, scientists from Egypt are dealing with the UOC class numbers 53, 54,
providing a lot of literature for publication.
62 and 67. Next comes the Indian journal
The foreign literature
contributions
being of Pure and Applied Mathematics
with 73
published in chemistry come mostly (viz.62%) papers, journal of Information
and Optimi
from Egypt. In other words, Egyptian scientists z atlon Sciences
with 60 and Indian Journal
are patronizing Indian chemical journals in a of Technology with 52 papers.
big way, thereby indicating that the Indian
periodicals have matured into an international
It is further seen from Table 3 that Current
medium of communication for chemical re- Science is the only Indian periodical that covers
search work, particularly
for the developing most of the branches of pure and applied
world. The papers are uniformly distributed in sciences. Most of the periodicals in Table 3
different subjects with slight fluctuations. It are interdisciplinary in nature covering 4 or 5
is observed that the first group of countries subjects. There are very few periodicals (e.g.
(1-5) has the maximum contribution of papers journal of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Indian
(viz. 59.9%) in Indian periodicals. The next journal of paediatrics, etc.) which specifically
group of countries contributing
13.08% is deal with a particular subject.
Table 3: Overall Ranking of Periodicals in All Scientific Subjects
Rank
Title of Periodicals
No. of
Papers
Subject Coverage
(UOC class Nos.)
1.
Indian Journal of Chemistry
2.
Indian Journal of Pure and Applied
Mathematics
73
3.
Journal of the Indian Chemical Society
65
4.
Journal of Information & Optimization
Sciences
60
5.
Indian Journal of Technology
52
6.
Indian Journal of Biochemistry and
Biophysics
47
54,57,61
7.
Indian Journal of Physics
45
52,53,54
8.
Sankhya
40
Vol .12 Nos 3-4 September-December
1985
164
53,54,62,67
51,53
54,57,62,63,66
51,65,68
53,54,55,62,63,66,67
51
1O:~
NARENDRA KUMAR & KOCHHAR
1
2
3
4
---------------------------------------------------------57,61
9.
Acta Anthropogenetica
39
10.
Regionalj
Transfer
32
11.
Bulletin of the Calcutta Mathematical
Society
28
51,53
12.
Proceedings of the Indian National Science
Academy - Pt. A.
28
51,52,53,54
13.
journal of the Institution
25
52,53,62,65,68
14.
Indian journal
of Pediatrics
24
61
15.
Indian journal of Pure and Applied Physics
24
53
16.
Current Science
22
17.
Journal of Applied Medicine
22
18.
Indian Journal of Experimental
19.
Proceedings of the Indian Academy of
Science - Chemical Sciences
19
54
20.
Journal of Mathematical
Sciences
18
51,53
21.
Bulletin of Materials Science
17
53,54,62,66
22.
Journal of the Institution of Electronics
and Telecommunication
Engineers
17
52,53,62
23.
Journal of Astrophysics
I'>
24.
Indian journal
25.
Phytomorphology
ournal of Energy, Heat and Mass
of Engineers, India
Biology
and Physical
and Astronomy
of Theoretical
Physics
20
53,62,63,66,67
52,53,54,55,56,57,
58,59,61,63
61
57,59,61,63
52
14
53
57,58
15
----------------------------------------------------------RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The present analysis indic~tes that chemistrycrystallography-mineralogy
group is a crucial
subject area in which the maximum number of
foreign contributions have been published, from
this, it can also be inferred that Indian periodicals in this subject area are comprehensive in
J()cJ
their scope, so that there seems to be a need to
have some more specific periodicals. There also
is a need to publish some more Indian periodicals in areas like agriculture, astronomy, botan y,
geology and zoology. It- also appears that certain
Indian periodicals have come up to the international standard and the research work being
publishc ' in them by both Indian and foreign
Ann Lih Sci Doc
FOREIGN SCIENTISTS' CONTRIBUTIONS
scientists appears to be well-recognized and
linked with the international science, because
the literature cited in them has both currency
and relevance. Further, these journals are being
published punctually. These prestigeous periodicals attract very good contributions from foreign
authors and get wide coverage in secondary
periodicals.
In the present study a total of 31,274
entries,
including
1720 for theses, patents
and standards were taken from ISA for two
years [9]. If we exclude the entries for theses,
patents and standards the number of entries
is 28,554, which includes both Indian and
foreign contributions
in Indian periodicals
covered by ISA. Foreign scientists' contributions
constitute just 1595 (5.4%) of the total of
29,554 entries for this period. In this context,
it would be pertinent to mention Rangarao's observation [10 J that in applied sciences the
number of papers contributed by foreign scientists in Indian periodicals is nearly the same as
that by Indian scientists in foreign periodicals,
whereas in basic sciences this ratio is 8: 1 in
favour of foreig~ periodicals. 58% Indian scientists are publishing in foreign periodicals [7J ,
while the present study shows that only 5.4% of
Indian periodical literature is contributed
by
foreign scientists. This suggests that a large
number of Indian scientists publish abroad and
only a few foreign scientists publish in Indian
qer.i..odicals.
Several factors are responsible for this, as
fointed out by Bhavani 111] like, refereeing
system, availability of periodicals in various
subject areas and subareas, wide circulation and
coverage by secondary
periodicals,
international recognition due to professional association of some Indian scientists with certain
foreign institutions,
assessment of individual
capacity,
publisher's
concessions,
etc. The
factors detering foreign scientists from publishing in Indian periodicals may be:
(i)
Low international
periodicals,
standard
(ii)
absence of specialization
fic su bject areas.
Vol 32 Nos 3-4 September-December
of
Indian
in some speci-
1985
(iii)
lack of regularity/punctuality
cation and poor circulation
cals, and
c,f puhii
of perio.h
(iv)
low coverage of Indian periodicals in (he
international
indexing and abstr acting
periodicals.
Removal of these deficiencies
could
certainly help in attracting more foreign
contributions.
The factors
promoting
foreign scientists to contribute, to Indian
periodicals include,
(i)
their earlier rejection by prestigeous periodicals and resubmission to Indian period icals,
(ii)
the contributions
may belong to
category of non-significant literature,
(iii)
most of the contributions may be coming
from under-developed countries.
the
(iv) . papers may be contributed
by those
scientists who are included in the editorial boards of the concerned journals.
(v)
some of the research papers may be contributed on invitation/request,
(vi)
some scientists may have preference for
publishing their papers in foreign periodicals.
CONCLUSIONS
The tendency of scientists the world over to
publish their works in prestigeous periodicals
has great relevance in the Indian context, since
little material of high quality is being submitted
for publication in Indian scientific periodicals.
It should not become customary for an Indian
Institution to publish a periodical of its own
without due regard to its editorial standards,
quality of papers and print and international
recognition of its published works. The present
analysis draws attention to the needs to improve the quality and standard of Indian scientific periodicals so that more of these are covered
I O.i
NARENDRAKUMAR&KOCHHAR
by the international
secondary
periodicals
and more foreign scientists get tempted to publish their research contributions in these periodicals. Although it is not our concern here to
pinpoint the factors that may go into raising
the scope for improvement of editorial standard
and quality cf Indian research work in periodicals, suffice it to say that subject specialists
can playa crucial role in this respect.
5.
Love E: Research: The third dimension of liberarianship. Bulletin of Medical Library Association
1980,68 (1),1-5.
6.
Mehrotra R, Lancaster F W: Where Indian scientists
publish. Current Science 1984,53(13),684-88.
7.
Rangarajan K S, Gupta B M: Analysis of the choice
of journals for publication by Indian physicists.
Journal of Library and "Information Science 1979,
4( 2), 144-63.
REFERENCES
8.
Bonn G S: Literature of science and technology.
McGraw Hill Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology 1982,7,754-60.
Arunachalam S: Scientific journals ill India: Their
relevance to international science. Science Today
1979, March, 45-50.
9.
INSDOC Annual Report, 1982-83.
2.
Directory of Indian Scientific Periodicals. New
Delhi; Insdoc, 1976.
10. Rangarao B V, Bhargava R N: Technical periodicals
in India. Science and Culture 1969,35(1),8-15.
3.
Science Citation Index: ISI, 1976.
4.
Singleton A: International Publications: changing
patterns. Physics Bulletin 1975, 26,354-55.
11. Bhavani V: Improving science publishing in India;
scientist's view. Seminar on Primary Communication in Science and Technology in India. Bangalore; 1978,41-51.
1.
106
Ann Lib Sci Doc
FOREIGN SCIENTISTS' CONTRIBUTIONS
APPENDIX
1
Classified List of Core Indian Periodicals in Different Subjects Covering Ten or
More Foreign Papers,
(Listed according to the UOC)
UOC
No.
Subject
1
2
51
Mathematics
Title of Periodicals
3
1. Indian Journal of Pure &
No. of
Papers
4
59
Applied Mathematics
2. Journal of Information Optimization
57
Sciences
3. Sankhya
38
4. Bulletin of the Calcutta
23
Mathematical Society
5. Journal of Mathematical and
12
Physical Sciences
52.
Astronomy,
Surveying,
Geodery
1. Journal of Astrophysics and
15
Astronomy
2. Proceedings of the Indian
11
National Science Academy - Pt. A
53.
Physics &
Mechanics
1. Indian Journal of Physics
42
2. Indian Journal of Pure and
24
Applied Physics
3. Indian Journal of Technology
15
4. Indian Journal of Theoretical
14
Physics
5. Indian Journal of Pure and
14
Applied Mathematics
54
Chemistry, Crystallography,
Mineralogy
6. Bulletin of Materials Science
12
1. Indian Journal of Chemistry
160
2. Journal of the Indian Chemical
160
Society
3. Proceedings of'the Indian Academy of
19
Sciences - Chemical Sciences
Vol 32 Nos 3-4 September.December
1985
107
NARENDRA KUMAR & KOCHHAR
1
2
3
4
-~--------------------------------------------------------4. Proceedings of the Indian National
13
SCI,:'lIceAcademy Pt. A
55
57
5. Indian Journal of Technology
12
Geology, Meteorology
1. Mavsam
14
2. Journal of the Geological Society of India
12
Biology,
Anthropology
1. Indian Journal of Biochemistry
4
and Biophysics
2
Acta Anthropogenetica
35
58
Bota.Qy
1. Phytomorphology
10
61
Medicaf~ciences,
Health ari~
Safety
1. Indian Jpurnal of Pediatrics
24
2. Journal of Applied Medicine
22
13
3. Indian Journal of Experimental
Biology
62
Engineering &
Technology,
Generally
1. Journal of the Institution of
20
Engineers, India
2. International Journal of Structures
15
3. Regional Journal of Energy,
14
Heat, and Mass Transfer
4. journal of the Institution of Electronics
11
and Telecommunication Engineers
63
66
Agriculture,
Forestry Stockbreeding,
Fisheries
1. Indian Journal of Agricultural
Chemical Industry, Chemical
Technt.!vgy
1
12
Sciences
Regional Journal of
Energy, Heat and Mass
Transfer
10
----------------------------------------------------------
IUU
Ann Lib Sci
00<.: