INSDOC'S CONTRIBUTION TO BIBLIOMETRICS*

Transcription

1 Annals of Library and nformaion Sudies. 49, 1; 2002; 1-6. NSDOC'S CONTRBUTON TO BBLOMETRCS* B K Sen 80 Shivalik Aparmens Alaknanda, New Delhi bksenqndb.vsnl.ne.in Traces he hisory of bibliomeric research, and relaed raining aciviies in NSDOC. Describes briefly he objecives, faciliies, services, research aciviies, and publicaions of Naional Cenre on Bibliornerics. NTRODUCTON lndian Naional Scienific Documenaion Cenre (NSDOC), New Delhi is one of he organizaions in he world ha has grealy devoed iself o he emerging discipline of bibliomerics by conribuing owards he developmen of he subjec, generaing services o help scieniss in making vial decisions like selecing a scienis for a naional award or a presigious fellowship, making scieniss aware of he value of heir work, helping librarians in reducing he number of subscribed periodicals judiciously when here is shorage of funds; and so on. n his aricle he bibliomeric conribuions and aciviies of NSDOC since 1958 are recouned. GENESS The review of bibliomeric lieraure conduced by Sen and Narendra Kumar [] showed ha he firs conribuion on bibliomerics from ndia emanaed from NSDOC wih he publicaion of an aricle by Dua and Rajagopalan in 1958 [2]. The aricle was on he sudy of ciaion pracices in 200 lndian and foreign S & T journals. Bidyarhi Dua, Anup Kumar Das Digial nformaion Consulans Pv. Lc 73/20, Golf Club Road Kolkaa das-anup Q rediff mail.com bidyarhiduaa rediffmail.com MAJOR CONTRBUTONS Coverage of lndian S & T Lieraure' B S Kesavan, afer joining NSDOC i 1960s, decided o bring ou lndian Absracs covering all lndian conrihui science and echnology appearing in aricles, conference documens, and so decision raised many an eyebrow and q from various quarers. Some of he scieni of he opinion ha lndian scienific canri were being adequaely covered by iner absracing and indexing services, hence was no need o bring ou anoher pu recording hese conribuions. Are conribuions covered adequaely by iner absracing and indexing services? This q occasioned several sudies and showed coverage of lndian lieraure was inade of physics, he coverage was found o be and 57.4% in physics 1960 and 1961 absracing services, he coverage chemical lieraure wihin 24 coverage of lndian medical early cience ns on ournal n. This sions s were uions aional here icaion lndian aional esion a he ae in mos cases and grossly inadequae ir some cases. Mahemaical Reviews and Lrullein Signaleique covered 55.2% and 50.5% mahemaics lieraure respecively [3]. n lndian e case 65.5% *Paper presened a he XXlll ASLC Conference, Trivandrurn, 4-7 December Vol 49 No 1 March 2002

2 B K Sen, Bidyarhi Dua and Anup Kumar Das Medicus and Excerpa Medica was found o be he wors [6]. The services covered 38% and 13.5% of lndian medical lieraure respecively. The coverage of lndian agriculural lieraure by six CAB absracing services was also sudied [7]. The coverage of lndian lieraure of 1961 and 1962 by hese services were as follows: Soils and Ferilisers (29.8%, 36.6%), Plan Breeding Absracs (63.3%, 65.6%), Horiculural Absracs (32.1 %, 40.9%), Field Crop Absracs (23.5%, 34.4%), Animal Breeding Absracs (58.3%, 55%) and Dairy Science (86.7% 67.6%). The poor coverage of he lndian S &T lieraure by mos of he inernaional absracing and indexing services jusified more han enough he launching of he lndian Science Absracs in 1964 which coninues o dae. Hins of ndia's Nuclear Capabiliy n 1965, Guha e al [8] carried ou a sudy basing 750 periodicals covered by NSDOC Lis in 1964 and deeced 1406 lndian S&T aricles published in foreign journals. Of hese aricles, a large number were devoed o nuclear science and echnology. Basing his finding, lndian press presumed ha lndia had developed he capabiliy of making an aom bomb and flashed he news. Though he sudy did no presume any such hing, he laer happenings however indicaed ha he presumpion of he press was possibly no wrong. lndian Conribuions in Nobel Lecures is a cusom wih every Vobel laureae o deliver a lecure based on he opic for which he has been awarded he Nobel Prize. The lecure is usually called he Nobel Lecure. n he lecure, he Nobel laureae brings ou he salien feaures of his conribuion, acknowledges he work of ohers ha has helped him and also names hose who has been influenced by his work. Sen [9] sudied he ciaions of lndian conribuions in Nobel lecures (Physics ; Chemisry ; and Medicine ), and found ha in all wenyone lndian scieniss were cied in he aforesaid Nobel lecures, of which welve were cied by CV Raman. MN aha was he firs o be cied (cied by WH Ners 1920), and SN Bose and HJ Bhabha were he las o be cied (boh were cied by H Yukawa in 1949). Change of iles of periodicals is phenomenon. For example, he ile of Library Science changed o Science and Documenaio Annals of Library and nformaion The change of iles poses m in lieraure search, bibliographica so on. A sudy was underaken explore he causes of his Unforunaely, he sudy could no n all, five insalmens of he sud [ which revealed many change of iles. Merger of w spliing of a ile; change in sponsor name, and periodiciy f ile; change in he scope, ec are common causes of he change periodicals. Oher Conribuions i - Oher bibliomeric and relaed sudies nduced by NSDOC perain o lengh of lndia names [23], nascen subjec, i.e. supergra iy [24], 'informerics [25], lndian chemical perio cals [26], lndian scienific periodicals [27], lndia medical periodicals in Science Ciaion ndex [ 1, lndian S & T journals in Science Ciaion 1 dex [29], Ciaion behaviour of chemical scien iss [30], Sandard impac facor [31], Journal o Oilseeds Research [32], Evaluaion of science [3 1, Review of bibliomeric sudies done in lndia [ 1, ec. NATONAL CENTRE The esablishmen of Bibliomerics (NCB) in 1 NSSAT is possibly he NSDOC o bibliomerics [ 51. Objecives The objecives of he Cenre were ' i) o creae S & T ciaion daabas of lndian conribuions appearing in lndi n S & T journals; 4 ii) o develop ools, echniques and odaliies for he analysis of research ou u based f..ann 'b- nf Su 1

3 NSDOC'S CONTRfBUTON TO BBLO: ETRCS iii) on SC daa and he ndian S &T ciaion daabase; o analyse he research oupus of seleced research insiuions, agencies, universiies and oher similar bodies. believed ha evaluaion of a scien becomes much more objecive whf evaluae he works of a scienis a accoun he ciaion scenario of he wc Research c work peers ng ino ;s. The effors enumeraed above would resul in he developmen of science indicaors ha could be useful in planning, funding, policy making for R & D managemen, assessmen of R & D oupu, ec. in any specialised sysem or conglomeraion of sysems. Faciliies The Cenre has all he cumulaive volumes of Science Ciaion ndex (SC) from 1955 o dae in prin form. has also annual versions in CD- ROM of SC from 1980 o dae. The Journal Ciaion Repor (JCR) is also available from he very firs issue. The prin form of SC is available for consulaion a he Naional Science Library, NSDOC, New Delhi. Services The services of he Cenre among ohers comprise he following: i) Analysis of research oupus of individual scieniss, eams, insiuions, ec. ii) iii) iv) Organizaion of raining courses on bibliomerics. Consulancy relaing o bibliomeric sudies, improvemen of impac facor of journals, ec. Supply of impac facors of all S&T journals including hose no covered by SC. v) Reply o queries peraining o bibliomerics, ec. Ever since is esablishmen, NCB has been carrying ou ciaion analysis of scieniss for poenial Bhanagar awardees, NSA fellows, and so on. This service has made a big impac in he scienific communiies in he counry. is srongly Evalua fion of Recen Research ou^ The major aciviy ha NCB ook up esablishmen was he evaluaion of he oupu of CSlR laboraories. The evalua' ciaion analysis is an esablished me mehod of analysis is applicable for o papers which are a leas four- o five. Bu he job ha was assigned o NC analyse he mos recerrbpapers, i.e. of he las year. No known mehod was o evaluae such recen papers. Hence, was needed o develop a compleely ne for evaluaion. The mehod developed M on he impac facor of he journals w papers were published, he impac fac considered as he score of he papers he paper describing he mehod was F o he nernaional Conference on ndicaors for Developing Counries, P 19 Ocober 1990, he Chairman of he Thomas 0 Eisemon declared ha all 0h presened in he Conference were \ mehods developed earlier. Bu he pap and Kumar describes a compleely nev The paper was laer published in Scier; [161- To check wheher or no he aforesaic was correc, anoher sudy was conc 1991, aking he 1988 papers as he sar For CSlR Research Oupu of 1988 facors of he journals were consic evaluaion. The 1991 sudy was basc ciaions received by he sample of he papers published in The ra laboraories according o ciaions e: allied wih he raking of 1988 sudy ( impac facor. Thus, his sudy valic mehod employed in 1988 using impac Using his mehod, he CSlR Researi is published ill dae and acs as an val~ for planning, decision making, funding a lfer is search n using )d. This y hose 2ar old. was o papers ailable search mehod s based rein he,r being When?sened ;cience *is, 15 - iession,. papers ~rks on by Sen nehod. ~merics mehod iced in ~le [ 71. impac red for on he oresaid king of ellenly ne wih ed he acors. Oupu ble ool so on. Vol 49 No 1 March

4 B K Sen, Bidyarhi Dua and Anup Kumar Das mpac Facor of non-sc Journals CSlR Research Oupu used o include all research papers published by CSlR laboraories during he previous calendar year. To deermine he oal impac facor, average impac facor, ec of all CSlR laboraories individually and ccllecively, i was necessary o have impac facors of all publicaions. As JCR does no provide impac facors of all S & T periodicals, necessiy arose o develop a mehod o deermine he imdac facors of all periodicals no covered by SC. The mehod developed for he purpose [ 81 was hailed by Eugene Garfield as an effecive mehod for deermining he impac facor [ 91. Normalised mpac Facor The research horizon of all CSlR laboraories encompasses almos all fields of science and echnology. The ranking of CSlR laboraories based on he oal impac facors and average impac facors placed some of he laboraories a a disadvanage because of he wide variaion of impac facors from field o field. For example, he highes impac facor in biochemisry and molecular biology is usually above 20, he same in aeronauics is around 0.5. The performance of laboraories working on hese wo differen areas showed huge dispariy in erms of he oal impac facor and average impac facor. To reduce his dispariy, he idea of normalised impac facor came ino being. n he case of normalised impac facor, he highes impac facor in all fields were considered as 10, and accordingly he impac facors of all periodicals wihin each field were calculaed and used for he,purpose of evaluaion [20, 211. Ranking of Scieniss When NSDOC sared geing orders for. conducing ciaion analysis of he nominees for various awards and fellowships, i was hough desirable o rank he scieniss belonging o he same field. For several years, i was seen ha he scieniss occupying he op ranks in our lis were geing he awards.or fellowships. This emboldened us o publish he mehod of ranking developed by us [22]. lndian Science Ciaion lndex Science Ciaion lndex (SC) brough c nsiue of Scienific nformaion, USA cc abou a dozen ndian S&T periodicals ou six hundred. As a resul, SC fails ' properly he ciaion scenario of lndiar To solve his problem, he idea of lndiar Ciaion lndex was conceived. Ne sofware was developed basing C package and adequae esing done. Thc of he daabase also began wil enhusiasm. Unforunaely, he projec immaure suspension. Publicaions CSlR Research Oupu [35] is a publicaion brough ou by he Naion on Bibliomerics annually. The circulai publicaion is, however, resriced. n : Knowledge is anoher imporan pu brough ou by he Cenre [36]. This P comprises bes research papers proc CSlR ever since is incepion in papers were seleced by he re laboraories firs. From among hese pa hose were included in he aforesaid vol~ fulfilled he ciaion-based crierion fixec subjec. TRANNG Ever since he incepion of he NSDO iled Associaeship in Documena Reprography in 1964 (now known as eship in nformaion Science), biblior being augh. The firs disseral bibliomerics from ndia, o our knowle produced by JS Ghosh as a suden of course in 1967 [37]. A look a he disse Eugene Garfield was enough o earn job a he nsiue of Scienific lnforma he pr~ducer of Science Ciaion nde~ inernaionally famous bibliomericiar Sengupa is also a produc of he NSDO The names of oher bibliomericians NS given birh o can be seen from references given below. Till dae, NSD a complee elecive paper eniled n1 and Collaeral Areas for AS cou organizes shor-erm courses on bib1 from ime o ime. by he rrs only ~f some porray lapers. icience?ssary S/SS reaion grea ced an egular Cenre of he arch of icaion licaion ced by ie bes lecive rrs only les ha Dr each course )n and ssociairics is n on le, was SDOC iion by hosh a, USA, inoher i.e. N course. OC has lis of 2 offers me rics e, and merics nf Su

5 CONCLUSON The modes beginning of bibliomerics research ha NSDOC winessed in lae 1950's coninued owards mauriy wih he progress of ime and reached is hayday in lae 1980's when Mr T K Daa was he Scienis-in-Charge. is during his shor enure of slighly more han a year, he Naional Cenre on Bibliomerics (NCB) came ino being, he book n Search of Knowledge was published, and CSlR Research Oupuwas born. The Naional Cenre on Bibliomerics could no grow he way i should have due o various facors. NSSAT's financial suppor which was vial for NCB's susenance and gr~wh sared gradually dwindling and evenually sopped by mid-1 990's. is unforunae ha he Naional Cenre on Bibliomerics, which could have been a forerunner in he area of bibliomerics in he world, is almos a non-eniy oday. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Coninuous suppor and encouragemen of Mrs. T. A. Pandalai, Ass. Head, Bibliomeric Service Division, NSDOC and Mrs. Aruna Karanjai, Documenaion Officer E-ll, NSDOC received during he wriing of his paper are hankfully acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. SEN (B K), KUMAR (Narendra). lndian conribuions in bibliomerics : a review. Annals of Library Science and Documenaion. 33, 3; 1986; DUTTA (S), RAJAGOPALAN (T S). Lieraure ciaions in scienific and echnical periodicals - a survey. Journal of Scienific and ndusrial Research. 17A, July; 1958; PETER (K M), RAJAGOPALAN (T S). Sudy on. he scaer of conribuions of lndian scieniss in lndian and foreign periodicals. - Mahemaics. Annals of Library Science and Documenaion. 13, 3; 1966; RAJAGOPALAN (T S), SEN (B K). Reporing of lndian physics lieraure in he Physics Absracs. Annals of Library Science and, - NSDOC'S CONTRBUTON TO BBLO Documenaion. 1 1 ; 1964; KRSHNAN (A), MOHAN lndian documens in echnology: a sudy of quickness of documenaion 1963; RAJAGOPALAN (T S), SEN (B UPADHYAY (P D) GUHA (B), GUPTA (A K), KACHROO (M L). lndian auhors in sample survey. and 9. SEN (B K). lndian lecures. Annals Documenaion. TRCS 10. GUHA (B), SEN (B K), NlYOGl ( N). On changes of iles of periodicals -P Annals of Library Science and Documen ion. 22, 2; 1975; Do - P. Annals of Library Sc nce and Documenaion. 22, 3; 1975; Do - P ll. Annals of Library Documenaion. 23, 2; 1976; Do - P V. Annals of Library.Sc nce and Documenaion. 23, 3; 1976; Do - P V. Annals of Library Sc nce and Documenaion. 24, 3-4; 1977; SEN (BK). Naional Cenre on Bib omerics. NlSSA T Newsleer. 7, 4; 1988;!-6. Vol 49 No 1 March 2002

6 Sen, Bidyarhi ~ua aid Anup ~ u kdm r SEN (B K), Kumar (Shailendra). Evaluaion of recen scienific oupu by bibliomeric mehod. Scienomerics. 23, 1; 1992; ARORA (K), SEN (6 K). Use of impac facor as a valid measure for evaluaing he performance of a scienific paper. Third lnernaional Conference on nformerics, Au~ SEN (B K), KARANJA (A), MUNSH (U M). Mehod for he deerminaion of impac facors of non-sc journals. Journal of Documenaion. 45, 2; 1989; 137. GARFELD (E). Curren Conens. 22; 1990; 5. SEN (B K). Normalised impac facor. Journal of Documenaion. 48,3; 1992; SEN (6 K), MUKHOPADHYAY (A). A scienomeric ool based on normalised impac facor. Proceedings-Fifh nernaional Conference of he lnernaional Sociey for Scienomerics and nformerics, Chicago, June 7-10, SEN (6 K), PANDALA (T A), KARANJA (A). Ranking of scieniss - a new approach. Journal of Documenaion. 54,5; 1998; SEN (6 K), GUPTA (S K), GHOSH (S 6). lndian names and compuers. Annals of Library Science and Documenaion. 22, 2; 1975; BHATTACHARYYA (H), SEN (B K). Applicaion of ciaion analysis in supergraviy - a nascen subjec. Proc 15h ASLC Conf 1985, p RAJAN (T N), SEN (B K). An essay on informerics : a sudy on growh and developmen. Annals of Library Science and Documenaion. 33, 1-2; 1986; SEN (B K), PANDALA (T A). Chemical periodicals in ndia. Seminar on Learned Periodicals, Feb 1989, New Delhi. New Delhi: NSDOC, SEN (6 K), PANDALA (T A). lndian scienific periodicals - pas and resen. Paper presened a he Brains orming Session on lndian S & T Periodical, March 1989, Madras. MUNSH (U M), KARANJA (A), S lndian medical periodicals and Ciaion ndex. ASLC Bullein SEN (6 K), LAKSHM (V V). lndi S & T journals in he Science Ciaio ndex. Scienomerics. 23, 2; 1992; 29-5 MUNSH (U M), KARANJA (A), S Ciaion behaviour of chemical a case sudy. LA Bullein. 27, F SEN (6 K), PAMDALA (T A), KA ANJAl (A K). Sandard impac facor. Fourh lnernaional Conference on Bibli erics, nformerics, and Scienomerics Sepember 1993, Berlin. KALYANE (V L), SEN (B K): A sudy of he Journal of Annals of Documenaion. f PANDALA (T A), KARANJA (A), EN (6 K). Bibliomerics in he evalu ion of science. Handbook of libraries, rchives and informaion cenres in ndia V Bibliomerics, scienomeric, and informerics. New Delhi, p SEN (6 K), LAKSHM (V V). Bibli in ndia. LA Bullein. 26,4; 1991 ; CSR Research Naional Cenre on SEN (6 K), PANDALA (T A), "V), KARANJA (A), MUNSH (SHALENDRA). n Search New Delhi: CSR, ndex. k GHOSH (J S). Ciaion indexi g and lieraure search hrough Science iaion ndex [Disseraion]. New Delhi: SDOC, " Ann Li nf Su