Highly cited publications output by India in materials science published during 2003–2012: A scientometric assessment

The main objective of this research was to identify highly cited papers in materials science and to analyze their publication and citation data to study their citation characteristics and to understand what role contributing authors, research organizations, as well as international collaborative players play in Indian materials science research. Indian materials science articles published from 2003 to 2012 were screened and highly cited papers, with at least 100 citations since publication, were identified and selected for a bibliometric analysis. The total number of papers, authorship, and collaboration statistics are presented for authors, institutions, foreign countries. To assess contributions, a new indicator, and the major contributor index (MCI) were used. Citation trends for all papers, as well as for top papers, are presented. A total of 396 highly cited articles, constituting 2.59% world share and 2.96% country share, were published by India in materials science output during 2003–2012. This study covered only those papers that received at least 100 citations since publication. In recent years, top‑cited articles have reached their citation peak in the early years of their citation life cycle but have shown a more rapid decreasing trend compared to top‑cited articles from the past decades. These 396 articles have received 68,668 citations, with an average citation per paper being 173.40. The leading Indian organizations participating in highly cited research were IISc‑Bangalore (49 papers), NCL‑Pune (29 papers), Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Research‑Bangalore (25 papers), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)‑Delhi and IIT‑Kharagpur (16 papers each), Indian Institute of Chemical Technology‑Hyderabad (15 papers), etc. The leading authors were C.N.R. Rao (20 papers), M. Sastry and V.K. Gupta (9 papers each), A. Govindaraj (8 papers), and A. Ahmad, V. Thomas, and C.D. Lokhande (6 papers each). The leading international collaborative countries were the USA (49 papers), Japan (27 papers), Germany (23 papers), South Korea (12 papers), and France (9 papers). MCI varied among leading institutions, as well as among individual authors. An indicator like the MCI can provide a proxy for the contributions made by an individual or institution. It reflects the independent research ability and leadership. In future evaluations of the institution or individual performances, the MCI should be included, together with the number of total papers, to provide a better profile of research performance.