Amidst Research Output Growth in India, Opportunities Abound to Generate Greater Impact, Reveals Elsevier Report

NEW DELHI, March 3, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

2013 study throws light on India's performance as benchmarked against other research nations

A recent study prepared by Elsevier for the UK's Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and based on Scopus data, shows that India has achieved substantial growth in research articles output, increasing from 54 thousand in 2008 to 93 thousand in 2012 at an annualized growth rate of 14.4%. This is a rate higher than that of China (10.9%), Brazil (7.9%), Russia (1.9%) and the U.K. (2.9%).

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Figure: Share of world articles for the UK and comparators Brazil, India, Russia, 2008-2012 with right-hand panel excluding the US and China for clarity. Source: Scopus.

Over the same period from 2008 to 2012, India's share of the top 10% of the most cited articles - a proxy for high quality research articles - rose from 2.0% to 3.1% at an annual growth rate of 11.3%, which is higher than Brazil (7.6%), Russia (8.4%) and the U.K. (- 2.7%). Only China surpassed India with a 13.8% annual growth rate.

India's field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) - normalized at value of "1" as the world average - is below average at 0.75 and is declining at a rate of 1.6% per year. China has a comparable FWCI to India, but is experiencing an upward annual growth rate of 2.4%. The field-weighted citation impact is generally considered to be a good indicator for quality.

The report indicates that when India collaborates internationally, the articles with Indian and international co-authors are associated with 111% greater FWCI than articles with single institution co-authorship.

India's international co-authorship is modest with a share of 16.2% in 2012, behind Brazil (24.2%), Russia (29.8%) and the U.K. (47.6%). Only China's international co-author share is below India's at 14.9%.

Dr. Michiel Kolman, Senior Vice-President of Academic Relations at Elsevier, who is visiting Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore, said, "India shows incredible growth in article output, even surpassing China. On the quality side, although we see an overall impact that is below the world's average, there is a rising share of higher-quality articles from India. Articles from India that resulted from international collaboration show impressively high quality at more than twice the impact of articles from a single institute."

"More can be done to further advance India's research excellence. Encouraging collaboration with the international research community will aid knowledge transfer between parties and bolster cross-border recognition," said Dr. Kolman.

On India's performance in patents, the number of patents granted to India in 2012 is 3588, a figure that is higher than Brazil's (1027), but considerably lower than the numbers for the U.K. (20,194), Russia (24,551) and much farther behind China (152,102).

Dr. Kolman also revealed that the proportion of Indian research cited in patents is relatively low. The relative share of India's patent citations to articles published from 2007 to 2011 is at 1.50 for the UK, and generally lower amongst the BRIC countries: India (0.65), China (0.54), Russia (0.42) and Brazil (0.44).

Dr. Kolman went on to explain that many U.K. research articles have been cited in worldwide patents. "This indicates that the U.K. possesses the infrastructure and governance to produce research that lays the foundation for innovation. In India and other BRIC nations (Brazil, Russia and China), there are room and opportunities for greater growth in both the number of patents and the research that leads to patents."

About Scopus

Scopus, the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize scholarly research. Its vast database contains abstracts and references from 21,000 titles from more than 5,000 publishers worldwide, ensuring broad interdisciplinary coverage in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences and Arts & Humanities. Scopus was designed and developed with input from researchers and librarians internationally; and features direct links to subscribed full-text articles, other library resources and interoperability with applications such as reference management software.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and 25,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, SciVal, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, helping research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

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Elsevier
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