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National Mapping of Science:
Earth Science Research in India

 

ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken to quantify and map the research efforts of Indian earth scientists basing the CD-ROM version of the GeoRef database. In all, the database included 1501 Indian publications in 1990, 747 in 1994, and 879 in 1998. India ranked 10th in the world on the publication count during 1990 and 11^th both in 1994 and 1998. USA topped the list followed by Canada in 1990 and 1994. However, UK took the 2^nd position in 1998. The database showed a decline in the number of publications produced by almost all the countries during 1994 and 1998. Possibly it was due to the reduction in coverage by the database. In language-wise distribution of publications English topped the list followed by Russian, Chinese, French and German. However, during 1994 Chinese occupied the second position and in 1998 Russian regained the second position. Of the Indian publications more than 75% were published in Indian sources only. All the publications by the Indian scientists were in English excepting four Russian articles, two Hindi articles, one Japanese and one French article. All the publications by the Indian scientists are found to be analytic in nature. Igneous and metamorphic petrology is found to be the major area of research chosen by the Indians followed by applied geophysics, economic geology, stratigraphy, structural geology, and engineering geology. More than 50% of the Indian publications appeared in journals and the rest in conference documents, books, etc. Some publications were simply abstracts. In city-wise distribution of publications, Calcutta, Dehra Dun, Lucknow, Hyderabad, New Delhi, and Bangalore occupied the top positions. In state-wise distribution West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and Maharashtra occupied the top positions. In the institution-wise distribution of publications, Geological Survey of India, Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Geophysical Research Institute, Birbal Sahani Institute of Paleobotany, and National Institute of Oceanography occupied the top positions. It is interesting to note that 70% of the Indian publications is shared by the first 12 institutions in India. Of the top 10 sources where the Indian scientists placed their publications 9 are from India.

KEYWORDS: India; Earth science research; GeoRef database; Scientometric study.

INTRODUCTION

This study was taken up to quantify and map the Indian contributions in the field of earth sciences basing the CD-ROM version of the GeoRef database published by the American Geological Institute, USA for the years 1986-1997 and 1997 - August 2000. The GeoRef database contains over 1.9 million records of North America since 1785 and other areas of the world since 1933. The database has devised its own classification system to organise the literature as per their 50 category codes (CC). The GeoRef records encompass 17 fields.

METHODOLOGY

The records of the years 1990, 1994 and 1998 were downloaded from the CD-ROM version of GeoRef database using the following combination of bibliographic data fields for the analysis:
Set 1 PY = 1990/1994/1998 and INDIA in AF;
Set 1 and Source;
Set 1 and Country of Publication;
Set 1 and Category Codes;
Set 1 and Year of Publication;
Set 1 and Language of the Article;
Set 1 and Document Type;
Set 1 and Treatment of the Work;
Set 1 and Author Affiliation and Category Codes

The database included 1501 records from India in 1990, 747 records in 1994, and 897 records in 1998.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

The coverage of Indian literature in GeoRef is not exhaustive. Hence, some Indian publications belonging to 1990, 1994 and 1998, which were not covered in the GeoRef database could not be included in this study.

ANALYSIS

The analysis of data was carried out according to type of publication, source of the publication, country of publication, name of the institution, address of the institution, language of publication, subject of publication, year of publication, etc. to determine Indian contributions to world's literature in earth sciences, top priority areas for research, places of publication, top journals/sources where Indian publications were published, major institutions and their priority areas of research, geographic distribution of the origin of publications, etc.

Country-Wise Distribution of Publications

As per the data presented in Table 1, India ranks 10th in the world based on the publication count during 1990 and 11^th in 1994 and 1998. USA tops the list followed by Canada in 1990 and 1994. However, UK took the 2^nd position in 1998. Almost all the countries recorded a decline in the number of publications produced during 1994 and 1998 compared to 1990. There are some slight shifts in percentage share and ranks during 1994 and 1998 from 1990.

Table 1: Country-Wise Distribution of Publications

Country	1990	%	Rank	1994	%	Rank	1998	%	Rank
World	72286	100		56813	100		49933	100
USA	22513	31.14	1	19217	33.83	1	14893	29.83	1
Canada	3838	5.31	2	3029	5.33	2	2295	4.60	4
China	3370	4.66	3	2310	4.07	8	2332	4.67	5
Russia	3374	4.67	4	1743	3.07	4	2260	4.53	3
UK	3211	4.44	5	2723	4.79	3	2754	5.52	2
France	2919	4.04	6	2039	3.59	5	1856	3.72	7
Japan	2296	3.18	7	1849	3.25	6	1916	3.84	6
Germany	2214	3.06	8	1760	3.10	7	1594	3.19	8
Australia	1817	2.51	9	1378	2.43	9	1505	3.01	9
India	1501	2.08	10	747	1.31	11	879	1.76	11
Italy	830	1.15	11	1153	2.03	10	1264	2.53	10
Netherlands	574	0.79	12	477	0.84	12	591	1.18	12
Switzerland	444	0.61	13	369	0.65	13	420	0.84	13
Israel	288	0.40	14	331	0.58	14	216	0.43	14
Greece	187	0.26	15	111	0.20	17	170	0.34	15
Malaysia	94	0.13	16	158	0.28	15	10	0.02	18
Korea	56	0.08	17	126	0.22	16	136	0.27	16
Pakistan	38	0.05	18	21	0.04	18	21	0.04	17
Total		68.57			69.60			70.32
Others	22722	31.43		17272	30.40		14821	29.68

Language-wise Distribution of Publications

Table 2 depicts the language-wise distribution of publications from all over the world as well as from India. Globally, in all the years English has topped the list. In 1990, Russian, Chinese and French took respectively the second, third and fourth place. In 1994, the position changed - Chinese took the second position, followed by Russian and Japanese. In 1998, Russian regained the second position followed by Chinese and Japanese.

Table 2: Language-wise Distribution of Publications

Language	1990		1994		1998
	World	Indian	World	Indian	World	Indian
English	56028	1499	48243	742	43289	878
Russian	5063	0	1075	1	1637	0
Chinese	2530	0	1261	0	1521	0
French	2572	0	844	3	870	1
German	1351	0	636	0	103	0
Japanese	1072	0	923	1	888	0
Spanish	960	0	870	0	500	0
Polish	79	0	59	0	157	0
Hindi	02	2	00	0	00	0
Arabic	01	0	03	0	02	0
Others	4771	0	2899	0	966	0
Total	72286	1501	56813	747	49933	879

Indians have contributed only in English with very few exceptions. In 1990, only two publications appeared in Hindi. In 1994, three publications were in Russian , and one each in Russian and Japanese, and in 1998 only one publication was in French. Amongst Indian languages Hindi figured but once in 1990.

Distribution of Indian Contributions as per Country of Publication

Indian earth scientists published about 74% of their contributions within the country in 1990 (Table 3). The percentage declined to about 50% in 1994 and rose to over 62% in 1998. It cannot be said to be a real decline as the database has reduced coverage after 1990. The prominent foreign countries where Indian scientists placed their publications are Netherlands followed by USA, UK, Germany and other countries.

Table 3: Indian Contribution as per Country of Publication

Country of Publication	1990	%	1994	%	1998	%
India	1117	74.42	370	49.53	549	62.46
Netherlands	122	8.13	73	9.77	63	7.17
United States	53	3.53	73	9.77	86	9.78
United Kingdom	44	2.93	39	5.22	52	5.92
Germany	20	1.33	10	1.34	6	0.68
Austria	13	0.87	4	0.54	2	0.23
Switzerland	6	0.40	2	0.27	8	0.91
Greece	6	0.40	0	0.00	0	0.00
Japan	4	0.27	8	1.07	15	1.71
China	4	0.27	0	0.00	1	0.11
Poland	2	0.13	0	0.00	2	0.23
France	2	0.13	3	0.40	2	0.23
Canada	1	0.07	9	1.20	4	0.46
Thailand	1	0.07	0	0.00	2	0.23
Finland	1	0.07	2	0.27	2	0.23
Hungary	1	0.07	3	0.40	1	0.11
Czech Republic	1	0.07	0	0.00	0	0.00
Iran	1	0.07	0	0.00	0	0.00
Monaco	1	0.07	0	0.00	0	0.00
Pakistan	1	0.07	0	0.00	0	0.00
Slovak Republic	1	0.07	0	0.00	0	0.00
Sweden	1	0.07	0	0.00	0	0.00
USSR	1	0.07	0	0.00	0	0.00
Hong Kong	0	0.00	0	0.00	2	0.23
New Zealand	0	0.00	1	0.13	0	0.00
Norway	0	0.00	1	0.13	0	0.00
Russian Federation	0	0.00	1	0.13	0	0.00
Malaysia	0	0.00	2	0.27	0	0.00
Spain	0	0.00	2	0.27	0	0.00
Nepal	0	0.00	59	7.90	0	0.00
Other countries	97	6.46	85	11.38	82	9.33
		100.00		100.00		100.00
Total	1501		747		879

Channels of Communication

More than 50% of the Indian earth science literature was published in journals and the rest in other types of documents like books, conference proceedings, and reports (Table 4). Some of the publications were in the form of abstracts and maps.

Table 4: Channels of Communication

Sl. No.	Channels	1990	1994	1998
1.	Journals	630	559	611
2.	Books	37	14	14
3.	Others (Abstracts, Conference Papers, Maps, Reports)	834	174	254
	Total	1501	747	879

City-wise Distribution of Indian Publications

The city-wise distribution of Indian publications is presented in Table 5 which shows that in 1990 Calcutta tops the list followed by Dehra Dun and Hyderabad, in 1994 Dehra Dun tops the list followed by Lucknow and New Delhi, and in 1998 Hyderabad tops the list followed by Calcutta and Bangalore. It shows that no city is constantly occupying the first position. However, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Dehra Dun are remaining within the first five cities as far as productivity is concerned. In all, 17 cities figuring in the Table which except in one case have contributed more than five publications each, in all the years.

Table 5 : City-wise (Top cities) Distribution of Indian Publications

City	1990	Rank	1994	Rank	1998	Rank
Calcutta	411	1	52	4	79	2
Dehra Dun	131	2	93	1	44	4
Hyderabad	115	3	43	5	113	1
Bangalore	75	4	22	10	49	3
Lucknow	65	5	57	2	37	5
New Delhi	48	6	54	3	37	6
Dhanbad	44	7	18	11	17	15
Panaji	41	8	38	6	17	15
Mumbai	35	9	24	8	17	15
Nagpur	34	10	16	12	25	9
Jaipur	28	11	7	15	24	10
Roorkee	28	11	23	9	21	12
Bhubaneswar	21	13	3	17	25	8
Ahmedabad	18	14	24	7	26	7
Mysore	13	15	7	15	18	14
Trivandrum	12	16	10	13	20	13
Chennai	6	17	10	13	22	11
Others	376		246		288
Total	1501		747		879

State-wise Distribution of Indian Publications

Table 6 depicts the state-wise distribution of publications. In 1990 West Bengal tops the list with 442 publications followed by Uttar Pradesh (285), Andhra Pradesh (155), Karnataka (125), and others. In 1994 Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 210 publications followed by West Bengal (86), Maharashtra (60) and others. In 1998, Uttar Pradesh again tops the list with 155 publications followed by Andhra Pradesh (143) and West Bengal (99). It can be seen from the Table that West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh have retained their positions within the first four in all the three years In all, 13 states are figuring in the Table.

Table 6: State-wise (Top States) Distribution of Publications

State	1990	Rank	1994	Rank	1998	Rank
West Bengal	442	1	86	2	99	3
Uttar Pradesh	285	2	210	1	155	1
Andhra Pradesh	155	3	59	4	143	2
Karnataka	125	4	44	6	80	4
Maharashtra	93	5	60	3	59	5
Bihar	61	6	25	9	29	11
Delhi	49	7	54	5	37	9
Rajasthan	42	8	17	11	40	7
Goa	41	9	39	7	17	13
Gujarat	35	10	31	8	49	6
Orissa	27	11	5	13	27	11
Kerala	20	12	17	11	29	9
Tamil Nadu	9	13	20	10	40	7
Others	117		81		75
Total	1501		747		879

Subject-Wise Distribution of Publications

All the publications of Indian scientists during the year 1990, 1994 and 1998 are found to be analytic in nature. It is observed from Table 7 that in all the three years igneous and metamorphic petrology has been the most productive area of research in India respectively with 177, 85, and 161 articles. In 1990, the second and third positions are held by the economic geology, geology of ore deposits; and engineering geology with 172 and 171 articles respectively. The scenario changes in 1994, when stratigraphy takes the second position with 73 articles and engineering geology and applied geophysics the third position with 71 articles each. In 1998 stratigraphy retains the second position with 98 articles to its credit, and geochemistry of rocks, soils, and sediments occupies the third position with 84 articles. From Table 7 it is clear that igneous and metamorphic petrology is receiving the highest attention from geologists followed by subjects like stratigraphy, engineering geology, and applied geophysics.

Table 7: Subject-wise Distribution of Indian Publications

Sl. No.	Subjects	1990	Rank	1994	Rank	1998	Rank
1	Igneous and Metamorphic Petrology	177	1	85	1	161	1
2	Economic Geology, Geology of Ore Deposits	172	2	34	13	75	4
3	Engineering Geology	171	3	71	3	58	9
4	Applied Geophysics	155	4	71	3	75	4
5	Stratigraphy	120	5	73	2	98	2
6	Structural Geology	103	6	51	7	54	10
7	Sedimentary Petrology	91	7	48	8	49	11
8	Hydrogeology	82	8	61	5	60	8
9	Economic Geology, Geology of Energy Sources	73	9	30	14	45	12
10	Geochemistry of Rocks, Soils, and Sediments	72	10	61	5	84	3
11	Oceanography	50	11	36	12	18	17
12	Soils	46	12	42	10	69	7
13	Economic Geology	45	13	7	19	14	18
14	Solid Earth Geophysics	41	14	25	16	42	13
15	Environmental Geology	36	15	47	9	75	4
16	Quaternary Geology	35	16	28	15	27	15
17	Paleobotany	32	17	40	11	14	18
18	Seismology	30	18	20	18	26	16
19	Isotope Geochemistry	24	19	22	17	34	14
20	Others	235		130		123
Total		1790		982		1201

Coverage of the Subjects by Institutions

It is also observed from the study that Geological Survey of India (GSI), has covered almost all areas of geology. Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Geophysical Research Institute; National Institute of Oceanography; Indian School of Mines; Jadavpur University; and Banaras Hindu University have also covered a wide spectrum of geology in their research work.

Organization-wise Distribution of Publications

Table 8 shows the organizations that have contributed 20 or more articles during 1990, 1994 and 1998 taken together. As can be expected, Geological Survey of India (GSI) and its branches taken together stay way ahead others with a tally of 685 articles, followed by Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (177). Both these organizations together account for about 28% of the total publications. It is interesting to note that more than 50% of the total publications is shared by the first 12 Institutions. Of the organizations figuring in Table 8 National Geophysical Research Institute (rank: 3^rd), National Institute of Oceanography (rank: 5^th), and Central Mining Research Institute (rank: 27^th) are the constituents of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Among the universities, Banaras Hindu University and University of Roorkee come first both ranking 6^th, followed by Andhra University (rank: 10^th), University of Delhi (rank: 12^th), Osmania University (rank: 15^th), University of Mysore (rank: 17^th), Bangalore University (rank: 19^th), M.S. University of Baroda (rank: 20^th), Aligarh Muslim University (rank: 21^st), University of Calcutta (rank: 21^st), and Karnatak University (rank: 25^th). It may be noted that of the 27 organizations figuring in the Table, as many as 11 are universities. Of the Indian Institutes of Technology, only two appear in this Table, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (rank: 11^th) and Indian Institute of Technology, Powai (rank: 18^th).

The number of contributions from colleges is pretty small which does not average even one per college. About 60 colleges have contributed articles during 1990, 1994 and 1998 - the number being 39, 24 and 45 respectively. The three colleges that contributed more than 5 articles in the aforesaid three years are: Presidency College, Calcutta (12 articles), Deccan College, Poona (7 articles), and D S College, Aligarh (6 articles).

Table 8: Top Ranking Top Institutions as per Publication Count

Organization	1990	1994	1998	Total	Rank
Geological Survey of India (Head Office and Branches taken together)	507	63	115	685	1
Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, Dehra Dun	92	59	26	177	2
National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad	58	26	72	156	3
Birbal Sahni Institute of Paleobotany, Lucknow	35	47	20	102	4
National Institute of Oceanography, Goa	39	35	17	91	5
Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi	27	18	15	60	6
University of Roorkee, Roorkee	25	19	16	60	6
Physical Research Laboratory, Ahmedabad	13	19	23	55	8
Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad	39	6	8	53	9
Andhra University, Visakhapatnam	26	15	10	51	10
Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur	20	14	13	47	11
University of Delhi, Delhi	15	22	7	44	12
Oil and National Gas Commission, Dehra Dun	12	18	10	40	13
Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore	14	10	13	37	14
Atomic Minerals Division, Begumpet, Hydearbad	17	7	9	33	15
Osmania University, Hyderabad	22	3	8	33	15
University of Mysore,Mysore	11	6	15	32	17
Indian Institute of Technology, Powai	12	14	4	30	18
Bangalore University, Bangalore	20	0	8	28	19
M.S. University of Baroda, Vadodara	13	1	11	25	20
Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh	13	5	6	24	21
Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi	6	8	10	24	21
University of Calcutta, Calcutta	6	8	10	24	21
K. D. Malaviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration, ONGC, Dehra Dun	10	9	3	22	24
Indian Statistical Institute, Calcutta	3	7	11	21	25
Karnatak University, Dharwad	15	3	3	21	25
Central Mining Research Institute, Dhanbad	3	12	5	20	27
Others	428	293	411	1132
Total	1501	747	879	3127

Journal-wise Distribution of Publications

Indian earth scientists have placed their publications in about 400 journals, conference proceedings, books etc. Table 9 shows the top 28 journals which have published 10 or more Indian articles in the three years. It may be noted that Indian scientists placed more than 50% of their articles in these journals.

Table 9: Journal-wise Distribution of Articles

	1990	1994	1998	Total
Records of the Geological Survey of India	367	14	0	381
Journal of the Geological Society of India	106	118	147	371
Journal of the Indian Society of Soil Science	30	35	66	131
Indian Mineralogist	0	0	113	113
Indian Minerals	36	20	32	88
Special Publication Series, Geological Survey of India	36	0	25	61
Journal of Nepal Geological Society Special issue	0	55	0	55
Indian Journal of Geology	14	20	16	50
Palaeobotanist	12	25	11	48
Journal of the Palaeontological Society of India	20	10	11	41
Indian Geotechnical Journal	11	19	11	41
Geoscience Journal	13	16	11	40
Proceedings of the Indian Academy of Sciences: Earth and Planetary Sciences	22	9	8	39
Memoirs, Geological Society of India	25	0	8	33
Indian Journal of Marine Sciences	15	3	13	31
Journal of African Earth Sciences A	0	0	29	29
Photonirvachak (Dehra Dun)	10	5	10	25
Marine Geology	10	9	2	21
Indian Journal of Petroleum Geology	0	13	7	20
Geophytology	15	5	0	20
Bulletin of the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology	17	1	0	18
Developments in Precambrian Geology	16	0	0	16
Exploration and Research for Atomic Minerals	16	0	0	16
Journal of Himalayan Geology	0	14	0	14
Abstracts, Geological Society of Australia	11	0	1	12
Bulletin of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission	11	0	0	11
Meteoritics and Planetary Science	0	0	10	10
Gerlands Beitraege nilur Geophysik	10	0	0	10
Others	678	356	348
Total	1501	747	879

It is clear from Table 9 that the coverage of the journals by the Georef database has not at all been uniform. Of these 28 journals, in 1998 three journals i.e. Indian Mineralogist, Journal of African Earth Sciences, Meteoritics and Planetary Science have been added to the database and as many as nine journals, i.e. Records of the Geological Survey of India, Bulletin of the Indian Society of Earthquake Technology, Developments in Precambrian Geology, Exploration and Research for Atomic Minerals, Bulletin of the Oil and Natural Gas Commission, Gerlands Beitraege nilur Geophysik, Journal of Nepal Geological Society Special issue, Journal of Himalayan Geology, and Geophytology have been excluded from the database. From this data the amount of reduction in the database coverage can be easily gauged. The decline in productivity in 1994 and 1998 as seen in the tables is because of this very factor. The decline is not real.

FINDINGS

• There were 1501 records from India in GeoRef database in 1990, 747 records in 1994, and 897 records in 1998.
• India ranks 10th in the world based on the publication count during 1990 and 11^th in 1994 and 1998 respectively. USA tops the list followed by Canada in 1990 and 1994. However, UK takes the 2^nd position in 1998. Almost all the countries recorded a decline in the number of publications produced during 1994 and 1998 in comparison with 1990. The decline is due to the substantial reduction in coverage by the database.
• Majority of the articles were published in English followed by Russian, Chinese, French and German. However, during 1994 Chinese occupied the second position and in 1998 Russian regained the second position.
• More than 75% of the Indian publications were published in India and the rest in countries like Netherlands, USA, UK and Germany.
• All the publications of Indian scientists are in English except a few articles, of which four are in Russian, two in Hindi, and one each in Japanese and French.
• All the publications are found to be analytic in nature. Igneous and metamorphic petrology is found to be the major area of research followed by applied geophysics, economic geology, stratigraphy, structural geology, engineering geology in 1990. In 1992 engineering geology occupies the first position and in 1994 applied geophysics.
• More than 50% of the Indian earth science literature was published in journals and the rest in conference documents, books, etc. Some of the publications were in the form of abstracts, reports, and maps.
• In city-wise distribution of publications, Calcutta tops the list in 1990 followed by Dehra Dun and Hyderabad . Dehra Dun tops the list in 1994 followed by Lucknow and New Delhi. Hyderabad tops the list in 1998 followed by Calcutta and Bangalore
• In state-wise distribution, West Bengal tops the list in 1990, followed by Uttar Pradesh and Andhra Pradesh. In 1994 Uttar Pradesh tops the list followed by West Bengal and Maharashtra. Uttar Pradesh tops the list again in 1998 followed by Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal.
• Geological Survey of India has contributed almost in all areas of geology. The other institutions which have also contributed in large number of areas are Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, National Geophysical Research Institute, Oil and Natural Gas Commission, National Institute of Oceanography, etc. Amongst universities, Banaras Hindu University, Andhra University, Jadavpur University, University of Roorkee, M S University of Baroda, etc, also made significant contributions. Colleges also made small contributions.
• Indian earth scientists have mostly chosen Indian sources for placing their publications. For example, of the top ten sources, where Indian scientists placed their publications, nine are from India.

* Summarized by B K Sen basinf the original report titled "Earth Sciences Research in India: a study based on Georef" by J R Sahu, D B Ramesh, D P Sandha, B K Dalai, M K Seth and B B Sahoo, Regional Research Laboratory, Bhubaneswar. The study has been financed by NISSAT under its National Mapping of Science Project.

Information Today & Tomorrow, Vol. 21, No. 1, March 2002, p.3-p.12
http://itt.nissat.tripod.com/itt0201/nms-esr.htm