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http://unllib.unl.edu/LPP/Library Philosophy and Practice 2012ISSN 1522-0222 Comparative Research Performance Analyses of the Departments of Botany and Zoology of the University of Burdwan from 1960-2000Amitava Nandi Dr. Amit Kumar Bandyopadhyay IntroductionIndia invests a huge amount of money and time for the production of doctorates to meet its R&D needs. Evaluation of research institutions is very important for their ranking, proper funding, grant releasing etc. Very few studies have been made to compare and evaluate the research output of the universities and R&D organizations of West Bengal. In recent past NAAC started evaluation of overall activities of the universities of our country. In a 5 to 1 star ranking by NAAC, The University of Burdwan received four-star status, which is later revised to B+. The University of Burdwan was established in 1960 as a rural base university. Since then it has made a considerable contribution in the field of Biological sciences research. However, no specific effort has been made to evaluate the research contributions of the university. In the present work an attempt is be made to study the comparative research performance of Botany and Zoology department of The University of Burdwan by analysing the awarded theses and related published literature outputs. Literature ReviewA number of scientometric analyses have been carried out during the last two decades to evaluate the research productivity of Indian scientists. In a study of the literature use pattern by the researchers in the field of Botany: A citation study of doctoral theses, Maheswarappa and Prakash (1982) analysed 2726 references from fifteen doctoral theses in Botany accepted by Mysore University during 1973-1980. They found out the bibliographic forms used, ranked list of core journals, self citation pattern, obsolesence, etc. The average self-citation rate was 3.22%. Mahapatra (1983) in his thesis prepared a rank list of botany journals analyzing 17802 journal articles. Maheswarappa and Nagappa (1984) studied the Indian phytopathology literature. After analysing 20 dissertations of plant pathology of Rajendra Agricultural University. Lal and Panda (1996) created a ranked list of the 100 most frequently cited core periodicals. Lal (1993) reported the results of a bibliometric analysis of 4136 citations of articles published in the Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding and prepared a rank list of the 60 most cited primary periodicals. He has also illustrated the contribution of Indian and foreign theses and the authorship pattern revealing that multi authored papers were more in practice. Begum and Rajendra (1990) in their study observed the dominance of multiple authorship over single authorship in zoological sciences. Vimala and Pulla Reddy (1996) studied the trend in authorship pattern and collaborative research in zoology with a sample of 19,323 journal citations figured in the theses on zoology accepted for the award of the doctoral degree by Sri Venkateswara University, Tirupati, India. Kumar, S., Kumar, S., and Shah, G (2007) analysed 1429 research papers comprising 1117 articles and 312 short notes published in fifteen volumes, published for the year 1989-2003 in Indian Journal of Entomology. They analysed year wise distribution, length of articles, authorship pattern and calculates collaboration coefficients and most prolific contributors. ObjectivesThe objectives of the present study are: 1. To analyse and compare the trend of doctoral research in Botany and Zoology department in the University of Burdwan during 1960-2000. 2. To find out and compare year wise publication productivity in Botany and Zoology department. 3. To study and compare the pattern of authorship collaboration in Botany and Zoology department. 4. To identify and compare the most prolific authors of the Botany and Zoology department with their credit and Impact. 5. The citation scenario of the outstanding authors of Botany and Zoology department. 6. To identify and compare the journal preference of the researchers in which they have communicated their research findings. 7. To find out the country wise distribution of journals. MethodologyThere were 160 no. of Botany and 236 no. of Zoology doctoral dissertations awarded from the department of Botany and Zoology of this University from 1960 to 2000. The published articles appended in these theses and the articles reported in the Annual Reports of the University were taken as the input for the study. All the bibliographic details of those theses and related articles were noted on separate 8 X 5 inches slips. A computerized database is then created for in-depth analysis. AnalysisYear-wise distribution of theses over a five year grouping in Botany and ZoologyThe year wise thesis submission over a five-year grouping is shown in Table 1. During the time span 1981-1985 the highest 40 number theses were submitted in Botany and during the time span 1986-1990 the highest 64 number theses were submitted in Zoology. Table 1. Year-Wise Distribution of Theses over a five-year grouping in Botany, and Zoology
Guide rank of Botany and Zoology Theses during 1960-2000A ranked list of the guides of the Botany and Zoology Departments of this University is shown in Table – 2. D K Chaudhuri (Zoology Department) topped the list with 48 theses, followed by G Majumdar (Zoology Department) with 39 theses, B Nandi (Botany Department) with 22 theses and A K Banerjee (Botany Department) & S Roy (Zoology Department) with 18 theses each. Fig. – 1 represents the top 10 supervisors during 1960-2000 within Botany and Zoology. Table 2. Guide Rank of Botany and Zoology Theses
Figure 1
Year-wise distribution of articles over a five-year grouping in Botany and ZoologyThe article publication over a five-year grouping is shown in Table - 3. During the time span of 1986 to 1990 maximum number (251) of articles was published from Zoology Department followed by 189 articles from Botany Department during 1976 to 1980. Table 3. Year-Wise Ranking of Articles over a Five-year Grouping in Botany and Zoology
Degree of Collaboration of articles in Botany and ZoologyDegree of collaboration among co-authors:- The degree of collaboration among authors is measured by the following formula given by Subramanyam, K (1983). Nm C = ------------- Nm + Ns Where C = Degree of Collaboration. Nm = Number of multi authored article. Ns = Number of single authored article. The degree of collaboration among the Botany and Zoology Departments of this University is presented in Table – 4. The highest degree of collaboration is found in Botany Department (0.70) followed by and Zoology Department (0.51). Table 4. Degree of Collaboration of articles in Botany and Zoology
Most prolific authors in Botany and Zoology during 1960-2000 (according to 1st author)Considering the name of the first authors only, the most prolific author was P K Choudhuri (Zoology Deptt.) who topped the list with 80 publications followed by M A Choudhuri (Botany Deptt.) with 54 publications, D K Choudhuri & S Chakraborty (Zoology Deptt.) with 49 publications each, A Mukherjee (Botany Deptt.) with 48 publications and S K Ghosal (Zoology Deptt.) with 45 publications,. Table – 5 provides a ranked list of authors with their publications while Fig. – 2 represent the top 10 authors during 1960-2000 (considering the 1st author only). The first authors of the articles who produced at least 10 articles are only taken into consideration for preparing the ranked list. Table 5. Author ranking of Botany and Zoology articles (considering the 1st author only)
Figure 2
Co-authorship and credit study for the individual authors in Botany and ZoologyThe Co-authorship of an author is calculated by taking the number of papers published by the author as first, second, third, forth, fifth or sixth author. The total credit given for a paper is one. For a single authored article, the author is given a credit point of one. For a double-authored article, each author is given a credit point of 0.5. For a multi-authored paper, the first author is given a credit point of 0.5 and 0.5 credit point is distributed dividing equally among the other authors. The authors who have credited minimum of 5 points are only taken into consideration for preparing the ranked list. The ranked list of authors according to their credit is shown in Table - 6. The most credited author was M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) who topped the list with 97.25 points, followed by P K Choudhuri (Zoology Department) with 62 points, S K Moitra (Zoology Department) with 59.25 points, B Nandi (Botany Department) with 51 points, D K Choudhuri (Zoology Department) with 49.33 points and S Chakraborty (Zoology Department) with 47.16 points. Fig. – 3 represent the top 10 credited authors. Table 6. Authorship and credit study for the individual authors in Botany and Zoology
Figure 3
Author's Impact in Botany and Zoology (according to 1st author)The Impact of an author (Table – 7, Fig. – 4) with reference to a journal is calculated by taking the number of papers published by the author (as first author) in the journal multiplied by the average Impact Factor of the journal. The total impact of an author is calculated by summing all such values with reference to that author. The average Impact Factors of the journals are taken as per "SCIENCE JOURNAL RANKING BY AVERAGE IMPACT FACTORS, Version 2002" created by Acad. Prof. Dr. Ioan-Iovitz Popescu Based on ISI annual datasets of SCI-JCR(1974-2000). Popescu Ioan-Iovitz (2002). Count of papers published in such journals, average impact factors of which were not available in this list has been excluded from this study. The authors who have minimum impact of 2 are only taken into consideration for preparing the ranked list. The author with highest impact (according to 1st author) was M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) who topped the list with 20.93 points, followed by S Chakraborty (Zoology Department) with 13.10 points, S K Mitra (Zoology Department) with 11.74 points, G Majumdar (Zoology Department) with 11.11 points and P S Basu (Botany Department) with 8.89 points. Table 7. Author's impact in Botany and Zoology (According to first author)
Figure 4
Author's impact in Botany and Zoology considering all authors at any author positionThe total credit given for a paper is one. For a single authored article, the author is given a credit point of one. For a double-authored article each author is given a credit point of 0.5. For a multi-authored paper, the first author is given a credit point of 0.5 and 0.5 credit point is distributed dividing equally among the other authors. The Impact of an author (Table – 8) with reference to a journal is calculated by taking such credit point of an author multiplied with the average Impact Factor of the journal. The total impact of an author is calculated by summing all such values with reference to that author. The average Impact Factors of the journals are taken as per Popescu Ioan-Iovitz (2002). Count of papers published in such journals, average impact factors of which were not available in this list has been excluded from this study. The authors who have minimum impact of 2 are only taken into consideration for preparing the ranked list. The author with highest impact (considering all authors at any authorship position with shared credit) was M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) who topped the list with 34.4725 points, followed by S K Mitra (Zoology Department) with 14.0350 points, P S Basu (Botany Department) with 10.8175 points and K Gupta (Botany Department) with 10.7033 points. Fig. – 5 represent the top 10-credited author's impact considering all authors at any author position. Table 8. Author's Impact in Botany and Zoology considering all authors at any author position
Figure 5
Citation scenario of the outstanding authors of Botany and ZoologyThe citations received by the published articles of Botany and Zoology researchers are collected from Scopus TM. From Table – 9 and Fig. - 6, it is evident that M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) received highest number of citations (233), with only 14 numbers of self citations whereas S K Moitra (Zoology Department) received 98 number of citations, with 34 self citations during this time span. The other authors P S Basu (Botany Department) received 75 number of citations (with 41 numbers of self citations), S K Ghosal (Zoology Department) received 50 number of citations (with 13 numbers of self citations) and B Nandi (Botany Department) received 40 number of citations (with 6 numbers of self citations). Table 9. Citation received by the authors of published articles of Botany and Zoology
Figure 6
Ranked list of journals preferred for publishing articles by the researchers of Botany and Zoology with their country of origin and average impact factorsThe leading journals preferred by the researchers of Botany and Zoology Departments for publishing articles are Ind Jl Exp Biol with 62 papers, Sci Cult with 39 papers, Ind Jl Plant Physiol with 36 papers, Geobios with 33 papers and Env Ecol with 30 papers. Table – 10 provides journal preference by the researchers of Botany and Zoology Departments. The journals in which a minimum number of 5 articles are published have only been taken into consideration for preparing the ranked list. Table 10. Ranked list of journals preferred for publishing articles by the researchers of Botany and Zoology with their country of origin and average impact factors
Country-wise distributions of journals preferred for publishing articles by the researchers of Botany and Zoology departmentCountry wise distribution of journals preferred for publishing articles by the researchers of Botany and Zoology Departments are presented in Table – 11. Maximum percentage (61.18%) of papers of Zoology Department was published in Indian Journals followed by that of Botany Department (50.47%). The researchers of the Botany Department published maximum articles in foreign journals 366 (49.53 %) followed by 279 (38.82 %) articles by the Zoology. Taking all the papers of the two Departments together 813(55.76%) articles are published in Indian journals and 645 (44.24%) papers are published in foreign journals. Table 11. Country-wise number of journals preferred for publishing articles by the researchers of Botany and Zoology Department
Summary and ConclusionThe study gives an insight of research publications of the Botany and Zoology department of the University of Burdwan. Scientometric analysis of 160 awarded Botany theses, 739 published Botany thesis articles and 236 awarded Zoology theses, 719 published Zoology thesis articles by the scholars of the The University of Burdwan during 1960-2000 were analyzed to compare the year wise productivity, authorship pattern and collaboration, Co-authorship pattern, Impact of authors, the citation scenario of the outstanding authors and ranked list of journals. The highest number of thesis (64) and highest number of thesis articles (251) was submitted by the Zoology Department during 1986-1990 whereas Botany department submitted highest number of theses (40) during 1981-1985 and highest number of thesis articles (189) during 1976-1980. The highest degree of collaboration is found in Botany Department (0.70) followed by Zoology Department (0.51). Considering the name of the first authors only, the most prolific author was P K Choudhuri (Zoology) who topped the list with 80 papers followed by M A Choudhuri (Botany) with 54 publications. The most credited author (considering fractional credit of authorship at any authorship position) was M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) who topped the list with 97.25 points, followed by P K Choudhuri (Zoology Department) with 62 points. The author with highest impact (according to 1st author) was M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) who topped the list with 20.93 points, followed by S Chakraborty (Zoology Department) with 13.10 points. The author with highest impact (considering all authors at any authorship position with shared credit) was M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) who topped the list with 34.4725 points, followed by S K Mitra (Zoology Department) with 14.0350 points. M A Choudhuri (Botany Department) received highest number of citations (233), whereas S K Mitra (Zoology Department) received 98 citations during this period. The leading journals preferred by the researchers of Botany and Zoology Departments for publishing articles are Ind Jl Exp Biol with 62 papers followed by Sci Cult with 39 papers. Taking all the papers of the two Departments together 813(55.76%) articles are published in Indian journals and 645 (44.24%) papers are published in foreign journals. ReferencesBegum, K.J., & Rajendra, N. (1990). Research collaboration in zoological sciences. IASLIC Bulletin 35(2): 79-82. Kumar, S., Kumar, S., & Shah, G. (2007). A Bibliometric Analysis of Indian Journal of Entomology (IJE), 1989-2003 . COLLNET 2007". Third International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics, Scientometrics and Science and Society & Eighth COLLNET Meeting 6-9 March 2007 , New Delhi, India. Lal, A. (1993). Literature contribution in Indian Journal of Genetics and Plant Breeding: a citation analysis. Annals of Library Science and Documentation 40(2): 64-76. Lal, A., & Panda, K.C. (1996). Research in plant pathology: A bibliometric analysis. Library Science 33(3): 133-147. Mahapatra, M. (1983). Growth of literature and citation pattern among the Indian journals in the field of Botany: 1950-1980. PhD Thesis. The University of Burdwan. 1983. Maheswarappa, B.S., & Nagappa, B. (1984). Indian phytopathology literature: a bibliometric study based on review of plant pathology. Journal of Library and Information Science 9(1): 36-47. Maheswarappa, B.S., & Prakash, B.P. (1982). Literature use pattern by the researchers in the field of botany: A citation study of doctoral theses. Journal of Library and Information Science 7(1): 15-32. Popescu Ioan-Iovitz (2002). Science journal ranking by average impact factors, Version 2002. http://www.iipopescu.com/Jo_rankingb.htm Subramanyam, K. (1983). Bibliometric studies of research collaboration: a review. Journal of Information Science 6: 33-38. Vimala, V., & Pullareddy, V. (1996). Authorship pattern and collaborative research in the field of zoology. Malayasian Journal of Library & Information Science 1(2): 40-51. |
