India ranks low in research

Updated on: Monday, June 28, 2010

India is ranked a poor 35th among the top 40 nations in the research performance, as per the Journal Citation Report released by Thomson Reuters, which is considered to be a leading source of intelligent information.
87,512 papers

Out of the 1,62,100 papers submitted from 2004-2009 to leading journals by Indian researchers only 87,512 were cited by peers, the report reveals.

Based on the citations by researchers across the world India stands at 35th position with 53.99 per cent of papers cited while the top place is taken by Denmark with 74.45 per cent citations.

Countries that submitted more than 20,000 papers were considered for the purpose.
Denmark top

“The report analyses the performance of world's most highly cited, peer reviewed journals from 2,200 publishers in 78 countries,” said the Thomson Reuters in its media release.

Denmark, ranked first saw 74.45 per cent of its 2005-09 papers receive at least one citation.

This was 17 per cent above the world average. Switzerland, the Netherlands, Sweden and Scotland were ranked second to fifth.
USA 8th

The USA was placed 8th while China was in the 33rd position.

The countries were placed based on the impact of research and there too India is in the 35th place. Switzerland takes the first place in the impact of research category.

The citation impact is calculated based on percentage of papers cited and citations per paper.

In research circles, if a paper is cited by a peer it is an indication of the excellence of the research.
‘No indicator'

Though agreeing that quality of Indian research is declining as whole due to various factors, academics say such reports are no indicators of a country's performance since they adopt different parameters. “Some qualitative research done in India might be useful for developing nations and may not be cited by researchers in the developed nations,” says K.C. Reddy, Chairman of APSCHE.

But he agrees that quality research is on decline in India though a few organisations and individuals are involved in excellent research.

India ranks low in research

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