Clinical Pharmacology Research in India: A Scientometric Assessment of Publication Output during 2005-14

Abstract

The paper examines 8519 publications on clinical pharmacology research in India as covered in Scopus database during 2005-14, using various quantitative and qualitative parameters with a focus on its growth, citation quality, share of national international collaborative papers, subject-wise distribution, contribution and contribution and impact of its leading scholars, contribution to most productive journals, etc.India’s global publication share in clinical pharmacology was 4.80, which increased from 2.65% to 6.69% from 2005-09 to 2010-14. India’s publications in clinical pharmacology witness an annual average growth rate of 25.89% and citation per paper of 6.75 during 2005-14, which decreased from 9.14 to 4.08 from 2005-09 to 2010-14. Nearly 61% of the Indian publications onclinical pharmacology registered citations from 0 to 605 citations and these citations witnessed highly skewed distribution. India’s share of international collaborative publications in the total output was 12.22% during 2005-14, which decreased from 13.99% to 11.76% from 2005-09 to 2010-14. The top 15 most productive Indian organizations and authors together contributed 19.25% and 4.71% and 29.06% and 8.39% share of the cumulative publications and citations output of India in clinical pharmacology during 2005-14. The 10 most productive journals in India’s clinical pharmacology research together contributed 33.82% share to the total India’s publication output in clinical pharmacology during 2005-14. India’s publication output in clinical pharmacology had on 51 highly cited papers (receiving 100 or more citations) and together received 8597 citations, leading to average citation per paper of 168.57.

Keywords: Clinical pharmacology; India research output; Citation impact; International collaboration