Current Science

Sumit Kumar Banshal ¹, Vivek Kumar Singh ², Aparna Basu ³, Pranab Kumar Muhuri ¹

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi 110 021, IN
2 Department of Computer Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, IN
3 CSIR-NISTADS, New Delhi 110 012, IN

Abstract

This article presents a computational analysis of the research performance of 16 relatively older Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in India. The research publication data indexed in Web of Science for all the 16 IITs is used for the analysis. The data is computationally analysed to identify productivity, productivity per capita, rate of growth of research output, authorship and collaboration pattern, citation impact and discipline-wise research strengths of the different IITs. The research performances of the IITs have been compared with those of two top ranking engineering and technology institutions of the world (MIT-USA and NTU-Singapore) and most cited papers from these IITs have also been identified. The analytical results are expected to provide a informative, up-to-date and useful account of research performance assessment of the IITs.

Keywords

Engineering Research, IIT, Research Competitiveness, Research Performance, Scientometrics.

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Marisha ¹, Sumit Kumar Banshal ², Vivek Kumar Singh ³

Affiliations
1 DST-Centre for Interdisciplinary Mathematical Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, IN
2 Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi 110 021, IN
3 Department of Computer Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, IN

Abstract

This article presents the research performance of the 39 central universities in India. The research publication data, indexed in the Web of Science, for the 39 central universities for a 25-year period (1990-2014) are used for analysis. The data are computationally analysed to identify productivity, productivity per capita, productivity per crore rupees grant, rate of growth of research output, authorship and collaboration pattern, citation impact and discipline-wise research strength of these institutions. Research performance of the central universities is measured and compared with two top-ranking world universities, namely University of Cambridge and Stanford University. While older well-established big universities such as University of Delhi and Banaras Hindu University perform better than newer universities, some relatively smaller universities, such as the university of Hyderabad have impressive research performance. What is disturbing is that combined research output of all central universities taken together is less than that of either of University of Cambridge or Stanford University alone. The results also provide discipline-wise research strengths of all the universities.

Keywords

Central Universities, Publication Data, Research Performance, Scientometrics.

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Sumit Kumar Banshal ¹, Tanu Solanki ², Vivek Kumar Singh ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi 110 021, IN
2 Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Galgotias College of Engineering and Technology, Greater Noida 201 306, IN
3 Department of Computer Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, IN

Abstract

This article presents a bibliometric assessment of research performance of the National Institutes of Technology (NITs) in India. While many of these institutes were originally established in 1960s as Regional Engineering Colleges (RECs), they were upgraded to NITs around 2002 and later. Initially NITs offered only undergraduate programmes in engineering. However, during the last decade, several NITs have started postgraduate teaching and are focusing more on research activities. It is in this context that this article assesses the research performance of NITs during 2005–2016. The performance assessment uses research publication data obtained from the Web of Science index. The data collected are computationally analysed to identify productivity, productivity per capita, rate of growth of research, international collaboration pattern, citation impact and discipline-wise distribution of the research output for the NITs. The performance of NITs is also viewed vis-à-vis two top-performing Indian institutions, namely Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai. A simple single-value composite ranking of research performance of NITs is also presented by combining quantity and quality factors. The study presents an informative and useful account of assessment of research work in the NITs.

Keywords

Bibliometric Assessment, Research Performance, Scientometrics, Technological Institutes.

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Sumit Kumar Banshal ¹, Vivek Kumar Singh ², Pranab K. Muhuri ¹, Philipp Mayr ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi 110 021,, IN
2 Department of Computer Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, IN
3 GESIS Leibniz Institute for Social Sciences, Cologne, DE

Abstract

Scholarly articles are now increasingly being mentioned and discussed in social media platforms, sometimes even as pre- or post-print version uploads. Measures of social media mentions and coverage are now emerging as an alternative indicator of impact of scholarly articles. This article aims to explore how much scholarly research output from India is covered in different social media platforms, and how similar or different it is from the world average. It also analyses the disciplinewise variations in coverage and altmetric attention for Indian research output, including a comparison with the world average. Results obtained show interesting patterns. Only 28.5% of the total research output from India is covered in social media platforms, which is about 18% less than the world average. ResearchGate and Mendeley are the most popular social media platforms in India for scholarly article coverage. In terms of discipline-wise variation, medical sciences and biological sciences have relatively higher coverage across different platforms compared to disciplines like information science and engineering.

Keywords

Disciplinary Variation, Research Output, Scholarly Articles, Social Media.

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Sumit Kumar Banshal ¹, Vivek Kumar Singh ², Philipp Mayr ³

Affiliations
1 Department of Computer Science, South Asian University, New Delhi 110 021, IN
2 Department of Computer Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi 221 005, IN
3 GESIS Leibniz Institute of Social Sciences, Cologne, DE

Abstract

During the last two decades the number of private universities in India has increased significantly. According to AISHE report of 2016, out of 799 universities in India, 277 are private universities, i.e. one out of every three universities in India is a private university. A significant proportion of colleges (about 78%) are also privately managed, as they do not contribute much to research activities and hence are not included in this analysis. Private universities are now becoming a major component of the Indian higher education system. Some of the private universities are exclusively positioning and projecting themselves as universities for high quality research and innovation. A few of them are now well placed in the national-level NIRF ranking framework. It is in this context that this paper presents a comparative account of research performance of the 25 most productive private universities with the set of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), Central Universities (CUs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), all of which have a well-established environment and culture of research. A set-based comparison methodology is followed. The results show good performance of private universities in research, especially in terms of output and rate of growth of output. However, on quality and productivity per capita and per rupee spent, they have a long way to go to match the performance levels of well-established centrally funded higher education institutions of India. This study presents detailed scientometric assessment of some most productive private universities in India.

Keywords

Private Universities, Research Performance, Research in India, Research Policy.

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