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The paper analyses publication output of India on cereal crops as reflected by its coverage in Scopus international database during 1965-2010 in gaps of five years. Analysis indicates that highest number of papers (40%) was published on rice, followed by wheat (29%). Agricultural universities and institutions under the aegis of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) were most productive. A significant number of papers were published in journals originating from the advanced countries with low impact factor. The highest number of papers was published in Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences, followed by Indian Journal of Agronomy. Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi topped the list among the prolific institutions followed by Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The major research was focused on 'genetics and plant breeding' followed by 'agronomic aspects'. The authorship pattern reveals that co-authored papers accounted for 94% of total output. Citation analysis of the study reveals that 22% of the papers remained uncited. Most of the prolific authors were affiliated to Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of 801 papers published in the area of bibliometrics and scientometrics during 1995-2014 indicates a steep increase in the number of papers published by Indian researchers as compared to the number of papers published during 1970-1994. This indicates a growing interest of Indian scholars in scientometrics and bibliometrics. The paper provides several reasons for this steep increase. The main focus of research is on bibliometric assessment of India and other countries followed by cross national assessment and bibliometric analysis of individual journals. CSIR-NISTADS is the top producing institute contributing about one-third (31.4%) of the total output followed by the output of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre and CSIR-NISCAIR. The distribution of citation data indicates that about one-fifth (21.7%) papers remained uncited. The paper identifies journals in which these uncited papers were published. Only 15% papers were cited more than 20 times. Most of the prolific authors as well as highly cited authors were from the institutions belonging to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Among all authors B.M. Gupta (CSIR-NISTADS) produced the highest number of papers, but the impact as seen in terms of citation per paper and relative citation impact, S. Arunachalam (MSSRF) topped the list. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on Web of Science data for the period 1987 to 2012, the paper analyses the research carried on mycobacterial tuberculosis and leprosy in India. It is seen that India contributes eight percent to the global research output occupying the third position in terms of quantity of research output and ranks 12th when considering the quality and quantity together. Apart from collaboration pattern, the paper also identifies the major institutions, prolific authors and preferred journals. Three-dimensional performance indicator combining quantity, quality and consistency have been used to rank the productivity of Indian institutions and authors in the field of mycobacterial tuberculosis and leprosy research. From the study it can be concluded that India needs to concentrate more on Mycobacterium research because the cases of tuberculosis and leprosy including multi-drug resistant (MDR) and extensively drug resistant (XDR) strains are emerging each year, and there is a necessity to develop effective controlling programmes for eradicating leprosy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper revisits a wide variety of health hazards in the library workplace. Through an exhaustive review, it explores the underlying causes of occupational risk & injuries to library workers; aiming to raise the awareness of healthy working practices and statutory requirements. It reflects the viewpoints surrounding the health and safety in libraries to illustrate possible health hazards of library workers in an Indian context. The paper informs about a variety of burdens that persist in the library workplace. It also outlines the major causes of occupational risk in terms of physical, chemical, biological, technological, emotional, and psychosocial hazards. It reveals how occupational hazards emanate in the library workplace and how library managers can prevent these hazards by creating health & safety compliance in the workplace. The paper concludes that there is a need for transforming the library profession to improve the level of occupational health practices ensuring standard norms and follow-up actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This part of the study highlights the contents of the published articles in terms of various disciplines or sub-disciplines and the bibliometric aspects discussed in these articles. The analysis of 902 papers published by Indian scholars during 1995-2014 indicates that the main focus of bibliometrics/scientometrics is on assessment of science and technology in India in different sub-disciplines including contributions by Indian states and other individual countries followed by bibliometric analysis of individual journals. Papers dealing with bibliometric laws received a low priority as compared to other sub-disciplines of bibliometrics/scientometrics. The analysis of data indicates that the share of theoretical studies using mathematical and statistical techniques which were missing in the earlier period (1970-1994) has increased during 1995-2014. The field of medicine as a discipline received the highest attention as compared to other disciplines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plagiarism is a growing concern for academia across the globe. Several factors influence the behaviour of the researcher towards plagiarism. The UGC (Promotion of Academic Integrity and Prevention of Plagiarism in HEIs) Regulation, 2018 was notified to promote academic integrity in HEIs and curb plagiarism. However, this regulation has many gaps which need to be addressed in the quest for achieving academic integrity. This paper is an attempt to identify these gaps in the regulation. It also attempts to address the over reliance of academic fraternity on Plagiarism Detection Tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the outsourcing of library activities and services in university libraries in Maharashtra. A survey was employed to collect data using an online questionnaire. The study (covering 27 university libraries) revealed that outsourcing is common in academic libraries. The paper identifies the activities that have been outsourced and draws a strategy that can be followed while outsourcing library functions. It concludes that outsourcing non-core activities can save the time of library professionals which can be invested by them in providing other services like literacy skills, quality research support services etc. Concludes that there should be a proper balance of outsourcing activities and duties of the library professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study examines the conformity of Lotka’s law to authorship distribution in the field of Artificial Neural Networks research (ANNs) in India during 1991–2014 using Science Citation Index-Expanded. There were 3411 articles contributed by 5654 unique authors. Lotka’s law was tested using methodology suggested by Pao and compared with maximum likelihood method advocated by Nicholls. The main elements involved in fitting in Lotka’s law were identified. These includes criterion for taking a certain pair of observed data points for calculating Lotka’s gradient, the constant for measurement of single author productivity and assessing goodness-of-fit. The results suggested that author productivity distribution, predicted by the modified Lotka’s Law suggested by Pao, was confirmed to the ANNs discipline in India whereas methodology suggested by Nicholls was not able to explain the author productivity distribution for the same. Evaluation of the prolific authors indicated that most of them are among the top position in their respective institutions. However, they were not listed as first author in their publications supporting that all the authors should be considered while analysing author productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on breast cancer research data obtained from Scopus multidisciplinary database, it is seen that with 6696 (1.82% global share) articles from India on breast cancer during 1975-2014, India ranks 12th in the world in terms of research paper output. About 80% of the Indian publications appeared during the period 2004-14. Hospitals are more productive with Tata Memorial Hospital publishing the highest number of papers during the period. About 30.35% Indian publications are a result of international collaboration with 94 countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the current status of university presses in India, and how they are interlinked with their prestigious fellowship programmes and academic research. Indian university presses were identified from DELNET union catalogue of books. Their publishing patterns are studied based on MIS reports available or generated from their respective websites. The paper also analyzes global visibility and availability of produced knowledge through institutional and external web catalogues, e-commerce sites and utilization of book promotion avenues. It is found that, as of now, Indian university presses don't publish e-books. Many of these presses don't even have a dedicated website for disseminating detailed bibliographic information on available titles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organic chemistry as a research area contributes to more than one percent of world publication output. The present paper attempts to draw a detailed, in-depth bibliometric analysis of organic chemistry research activity during the last decade (2004 to 2013) with special emphasis on the Indian contribution. The Indian output is compared with that of world's leading countries using exergy, an indicator which combines quantity and quality of publications. A three-dimensional approach combining quantity, quality and consistency is used for analysing the performance of various institutions and authors. It is found that organic chemistry research activity in India during 2004-2013 is equal to the world average and its growth pattern is positive and similar to the worldwide research growth. India ranks at the 9th position based on the Exergy(X), the performance indicator while USA, Germany and China occupy first, second and third positions.Among others, the most productive organisations and authors are also identified using h-index and z-index. The paper identifies countries, international organisations and journals that cite the Indian contributions in the field. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The study explores the information needs, information source selection and barriers in information seeking of the residents regarding cyclones. Fifty semi-structured interviews and 471 questionnaires yielded data from the population sample of Sundarbans, a coastal region of West Bengal, India. Findings show that after receiving the warnings, respondents preferred to depend on human sources and, to some extent, media sources for alert verification and confirmation. Human sources were most trusted in informal discussion for subsequent information seeking to pursue informed decisions against cyclones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]