Current Science

R. S. Vishnumaya ¹, P. Nishy ¹, S. Mini ¹

Affiliations
1 CSIR-National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695 019, IN

Abstract

The study attempts to analyse the growth and development of rare earths research in India based on the publication output as reflected in Web of Science (WoS) during 1987-2013. A total of 1,88,877 papers are seen as global research output on rare earths. India secures 7th position with 9457 papers. Indian rare earths papers are analysed bibliometrically to indicate the authorship, collaboration pattern, to identify the major institutions and most relevant journals; apart from identifying the research field or application area of research in rare earths. Recently developed three-dimensional performance indicators are used to rank the productivity of Indian institutions and authors in the field of rare earths research. These studies can help researchers to comprehend the magnitude of rare earths research in India and establish future research directions. The study found that papers having international collaborations are cited more often.

Keywords

Three-Dimensional Evaluation, India, Rare Earths, Scientific Collaboration, Scientometrics.

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Gangan Prathap ¹, P. Nishy ¹, S. Savithri ¹

Affiliations
1 CSIR National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695 019, IN

Abstract

We identify two orthogonal journal performance indicators from the points of view of size-dependence and principal component analysis using graph-theoretic constructs from social network analysis. One, the power-weakness ratio is a size-independent recursive proxy for the quality of the journal's performance in the network. The second, the number of references (out-links) that the journal makes to all journals in the network is the size-dependent proxy for the size of the journal (a quantity metric). In an input-output sense, the number of references becomes the measure of the input and the number of citations received by the journal from all journals in the network becomes the size-dependent measure of the output. The power- weakness ratio of citations to references before recursive iteration becomes the non-network measure of popularity and the power-weakness ratio of weighted citations and weighted references after recursive iteration becomes the network measure of prestige of the journal. It is also possible to propose first-order and second-order measures of influence which are products of the quality and quantity parameter space. We also show that the influence weight that emerges from a Pinski-Narin or Google PageRank formulation is a size-dependent measure of prestige that is orthogonal to the power-weakness ratio. We illustrate the concepts using two simple artificial two- and threejournal networks and a real-life example of a subgraph of 10 well-known statistical journals with network data collected from the Web of Science.

Keywords

Bibliometrics, Journal Performance, Power–Weakness Ratio, Social Network Analysis.

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Gangan Prathap ¹, P. Nishy ¹

Affiliations
1 CSIR National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science an Technology, Thiruvananthapuram 695 019, IN

Abstract

The use of conventional journal impact factors (JIFs) for isolated journal ecosystems which belong to what is called science on the periphery has limitations. We propose the power : weakness ratio as an alternative size-independent recursive metric for journal evaluation for such ecosystems. It is based on the idea of recursive citation weighting using graph theoretic tools from social network analysis. The two highly localized ecosystems (i.e. sub graphs isolated from the global graph) chosen are the chemistry journals from India and those from China which are found in the JCR. When the local ecosystems are isolated from the larger global scientific network, the cross-citation behaviour within the local ecosystem reveals different features. This indicator is a more meaningful measure of the standing of each journal in the cross-citation activity within the ecosystem than the well-known JIF which is a global measure.

Keywords

Bibliometrics, Isolated Journal Ecosystems, Social-Network Analysis, Power, Weakness Ratio.

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