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Purpose – The main purpose of this study is to determine India's position in publishing top research papers in chemistry as reflected in Science Direct. It also aims to find out authorship pattern, countries with major contributions, journals with high publication rates, etc. Design/methodology/approach – Citation analysis methods were applied to study citations of 450 research papers in chemistry taken from the listing of top 25 papers in Science Direct database. The citations covered 18 issues of the Science Direct generated alert service for the period 2004-2008. The bibliographic data were entered in Excel sheets for necessary analysis. Findings – The studies revealed that, out of 450 research papers, 36 (8 per cent) are contributed by Indian researchers. In the ranking of contributing countries, India reserves third position after the USA and China. More than 86 per cent of Indian chemistry research papers were cited by others. As regards to number of citations, 25 per cent of Indian papers are cited between 10 and 25 times each. The journal Tetrahedron was found as the highest publishing journal with 71 (16 per cent) publications. Research limitations/implications – The paper presents a sense of the importance of Indian chemistry research, and as such informs that community, as well as researchers involved in citation analysis. Originality/value – The outcome of the study is an original research work with citation analysis of top research papers in chemistry. The findings will have practical implications for Indian scientists, funding agencies and research establishments in different areas of chemical sciences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The incidents of elder victimisation and cases of victimisation, in general, are increasing fast in the society. These incidents have had negative impact on the sense of well-being and way of life of the older people. Therefore, fear of crime is being considered as a most concerning psycho-social problem amongst the older people in contemporary time. The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of crime rate on the well-being of the older people and examine the linkage between psychological factors and fear of crime amongst the older people. Design/methodology/approach: The present study is based on the mixed method approach and an exploratory research designed applied to conduct the study. The field survey has been done from October 2012 to January 2013 on a sample of 220 older people of rural and urban areas of Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh through purposive sampling. For the study, researcher has interviewed 137 male older people and 83 female older people through interview schedules and case studies. The data have been analysed through descriptive and narrative analysis. Findings: The study finds that those older people have direct or indirect experience of victimisation, they have anxiety and feel insecurity that someone can victimise them. The study also finds that the happiness of older people is more affected due to anxiety and phobia and have higher level of feeling of fear of crime in their neighbourhood and home. The study also finds whenever anti-social elements are active in the neighbourhood and they commit crimes, fear of crime and anxiety grasp the older people to a large extent causing a fracture in their psychological well-being. Originality/value: This work is the original work of researcher. This paper is related to the researcher's PhD dissertation work. This paper talks about how the psychological well-being of older people affects due to nature of crime in neighbourhood, phobia of crime and anxiety due to criminal activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Fear of crime is an emerging social problem in Indian society that has a significant impact on the quality of life of the elderly. In the view of this fact, the purpose of this paper is to examine the factors such as (prior victimisation, vulnerability and incivility) which contribute their role in bringing fear of crime among the elderly. Design/methodology/approach: Mixed method approach has been applied in this paper. This study has been designed as an exploratory lead-in to a planned wider study into rural–urban context as possible factors in shaping the victimisation experience. The study has been conducted from October 2012 to January 2013 on a sample of 220 elderly living in both rural and urban areas of Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Findings: The study found that elderly have been victimised by known persons as compared to unknown persons. Further, the study found that immediate neighbourhood was swarming with loiters, unruly teenagers, gangs, beggars and alcoholic people walk in the society which have significantly impact on the elderly and give threat in neighbourhood. Originality/value: This is an original work of researcher. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - A survey of University of Kashmir scholars was undertaken in 2008 to ascertain their experience, attitudes and perceptions about the open access (OA) movement. The purpose of this paper is to report the survey's findings. Design/methodology/approach - The study was based on data collected from scholars belonging to the Science and Social Science faculties at the University of Kashmir. A pre-defined, closed-ended, 14-item questionnaire was distributed among 84 research scholars. The selection of scholars was based on stratified disproportionate sampling in which the sample size for the departments of both faculties was confined to four scholars, as only four research scholars were enrolled in the Department of Psychology. Findings - The majority of the scholars consulted both open access as well as library-subscribed resources. Of OA resource users, four-fifths consulted journals and two-fifths consulted books. Colleagues (57.14 per cent) were the main referral sources of OA awareness with the least intervention from library professionals. Scholars (95.23 per cent) retrieved OA content via search engines. About 21 per cent remarked above 60 per cent relevancy of OA content related to their research need. The majority of scholars considered OA useful to publish their work quickly, boost their productivity as an author and increase citations of their work. One third reported awareness of more than two OA journals. About 30 per cent reported OA journals as a source of publishing their work, whereas just 10 per cent deposited their works in OA repositories. Overall, Science scholars had the edge over their Social Science counterparts in acceptance of open access. Research limitations/implications - The research highlights the viewpoints of only 84 scholars out of 326 registered scholars in the fields of Sciences and Social Sciences at the University of Kashmir. Originality/value - Research of this kind has not been carried out before at the University of Kashmir. The paper discusses open access awareness among the researchers of the University of Kashmir with recommendations for information professionals and teaching faculty to acquaint researchers with the benefits of open access. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – Crime against elderly people is a matter of grave concern in contemporary India. Today, they are being attacked with grievous harm, murder, and abusive behaviour by known and unknown persons. These cases have certainly had a negative impact on their way of life and sense of well-being. Consequently, fear of crime is being recognised as an emerging social problem among the elderly population in India. The purpose of this paper is to examine different types of crime that are being committed against the elderly, leading to a fear of crime. And, to identify the victim offender relationship. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed method approach has been applied in this paper. This study has been designed as an exploratory lead-in to a planned wider study. It examines the factors shaping the victimisation experience of the elderly. The study has been conducted from October 2012 to January 2013 on a sample of 220 elderly people living in both rural and urban areas of Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Findings – The findings suggest that emotional crime is a major problem among the elderly and more prevalent than crime against the body and property. The study has also found that elderly people have a fear of crime in their own houses due to victimisation. Originality/value – This is an original paper, which is based on the experiences of elderly people living in Indian society and discussed the impact of prior victimisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The present paper aims to measure talent management using corporate governance as a proxy measure and examine its impact on business performance in a public-sector bank, i.e. State Bank of India.Design/methodology/approach – Quarterly reports of State Bank of India from the financial periods 2006-2007 to 2009-2010 are used to collect data with respect to boardroom characteristics and ownership structure, and audit and nomination committees. The data used to assess boardroom characteristics and the audit committee include the number of meetings held, frequency, and meetings attended by board members. Business performance is assessed using ROA, ROE and Tobin's Q.Findings – On the basis of the results, the study found that boardroom characteristics have an insignificant impact on business performance, while audit committee and ownership structure have a significant impact on business performance (i.e. ROA, ROE and Tobin's Q).Research limitations/implications – The study considers corporate governance as a proxy measure of talent management, and only three corporate governance committees are used to examine their impact on business performance. Secondly, the results are based on quarterly reports from four years' financial statements.Originality/value – The paper contributes to the existing literature in exploring relationships between corporate governance, talent management governance and business performance in an Indian setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address the impact of caste and religious diversity on individual-level social capital. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the World Bank's field tested assessment tools, SOCAT, the field survey of the authors' study considers data related to most of the indicators of social capital. This study considers stratified random sampling method. The selection of four municipalities was done by purposive method and the data include information on 440 households from four municipal wards chosen from four municipalities of West Bengal. Out of four municipalities, two are most homogenous (Serampore) and most heterogeneous (Ashoke Nagar Kalyan Garh) along caste dimension and the other two are most homogenous (Purulia) and most heterogeneous (Santipur) religion based municipalities. Caste and religious heterogeneity are measured by an index of ethnic fractionalization, ETHNIC; the index calculates the probability that two randomly-chosen individuals will not belong to the same group. Findings – Using different measures of social capital, results of the analysis strongly support adverse effect of ethnicity on individual non-structural social capital. The data set and results imply that for every dimension, the formation of social capital for each individual is higher among same (homogeneous) individuals along caste and religious dimensions in their social sphere. Moreover the level of structural social capital in the form of associations and cognitive form are lower than individual form of non-structural social capital for each individual, irrespective of interactions between same or different (heterogeneous) types. Originality/value – The study is important in that it tries to explore the impact of diversity along caste and religious dimensions on the non-structural individual social capital, in an Indian context; whereas all the previous literature focuses on diversity along ethno-linguistic and racial lines and most of these studies consider social capital at aggregative level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to describe the initiative of the University Grants Commission of India in setting up the Infonet Digital Library Consortium (The Information and Library Network) in order to provide access to scholarly communication to the academic community in India. Design/methodology/approach - The context of higher education in India and the expansion and establishment of universities under the five-year plan is given along with details of e-resources that are being provided. The usage trends of e-resources from various publishers during 2004-2007 are detailed. Findings - The paper finds that there has been a qualitative increase in overall usage, but use is also dependent on a high-bandwidth connection. Originality/value - The study provides evidence of increased use of consortial services for access to e-resources in Indian higher education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The paper seeks to provide a comparative analysis of the functionality of five web-based OPACs available in Indian academic libraries. Design/methodology/approach - Same-topic searches were carried out by three researchers on the web-based OPACs of Libsys, VTLS's iPortal, NewGenLib, Troodon, and Alice for Windows, implemented in five academic libraries in India. Their functionality was compared using criteria selected from the literature on OPAC searching. Findings - The web-based OPACs investigated offered a range of facilities for searching by author, title, control number and by keywords. Federated searching across several e-collections was limited. Originality/value -This paper should be a useful source of information to librarians who are planning to introduce web-based OPACs and also for software vendors who wish to improve the functionality of their products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The article seeks to evaluate the capital structure of leading hotel chains of India to examine the role of financing decision in the overall performance of companies. It aims to analyze the debt-equity structure of these hotels, try to discover the industry benchmark and scrutinize how capital structure plays a momentous role in the company's overall growth. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on financial data collected on leading hotel chains in India. The consolidated financial results of the hotels have been considered for selecting these hotel companies. Findings - From the financial perspective, capital structure is one of the most important determinants of a company's sustainable growth. Leverage seems to be working only for a few companies, whilst affecting others negatively. Firms that have been moderately geared have been able to generate a good return on equity. Practical implications - The paper would be of specific use for top and middle level management of the selected hotel chains to reassess their capital structure for enhanced financial performance. For the hospitality industry in general, it would divulge best financial practices in terms of debt-equity mix and would assist in fixing on better financing decisions. Originality/value - The findings of the research are pertinent for the industry, as no explicit study in this area has been conducted in the Indian context. More so, because it focuses on the high turnover segment of the industry which captures the major market share in the business, it would beg the question - ‘Does being big always mean being better?’ [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this research is to provide exploratory insights on measurement of efficiency of the hotel and restaurant companies operating in India. Design/methodology/approach - This study will use a linear programming-based approach, data envelopment analysis (DEA), to evaluate the efficiency of hotel and restaurant companies operating in India. DEA is a method of evaluating the relative efficiency of decision-making units (DMUs). In this study the decision-making units are the hotel and restaurant companies. The study further explores if there exists a relationship between the efficiency and size of the hotel and restaurant companies. Findings - The DEA model used in this study assigns efficiency scores to each of the hotel and restaurant companies taken in the sample of 68 companies for the year 2004-2005. The study also explores whether there is a relationship between the efficiency and size of the hotel and restaurant companies. Practical implications - As this study evaluates the efficiency of the hotel and restaurant sector, it separates the most efficient hotel and restaurant companies from the non-efficient ones. The study identifies the top performers in this sector. Also, managers get important insights for their strategic and operational decisions to improve performance. Originality/value - There are very few known studies that have measured the efficiency of the hotel and restaurant companies. This study is one of the few exploratory initiatives in the Indian context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to understand the association between health behaviours of diet, physical activity, smoking cigarettes, alcohol consumption, safe sex and sleep quality with demographic (e.g. age, gender) and psychological (i.e. stress, self-esteem and sense of coherence) factors in Indian residential college students. Design/methodology/approach: Students studying for Bachelor of Technology at residential colleges in India were invited to complete an online questionnaire regarding their health behaviours, demographics and psychological variables. Each health behaviour was regressed onto demographic and psychological factors to determine which of them were associated with performing each behaviour. Findings: There was no clear pattern of predictors for the health behaviours overall. Self-esteem was related to healthy diet, being single was related to adequate sleep, higher parental income was related to safer sex and being older was related to more alcohol use and safer sex. Research limitations/implications: This study revealed that health education efforts may need to be designed for specific behaviours and correlates among Indian college students. Interventions regarding (1) healthy eating should target students with lower self-esteem, (2) sleep should target students in a relationship and (3) safer sex should target younger students and those from less affluent backgrounds. Originality/value: This research is one of the first attempts to study the predictors of health behaviours among Indian college students. The study highlighted that psychological factors (e.g. self-esteem) and demographic factors (e.g. relationship status, parental income, age) affect different health behaviours. These findings can help health educators to design tailored interventions and aid in health education and promotion among Indian college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose Of the three major streams of research in celebrity endorsements, the “Meaning Transfer Model (MTM)” has received the least attention from researchers. In the present study, the authors aim to investigate the basic components of the “Meaning Transfer Model” proposed by McCracken (1986, 1989) and outcome of the flow of meaning through celebrity endorsements.Design/methodology/approach The authors used an interpretive approach to address four broad research questions framed after a comprehensive literature review. Eight focus group discussions (FGD) (along with embedded word association techniques) were conducted among audience from heterogeneous demographic backgrounds from India. Content and thematic analysis were carried out on the FGD transcripts and the word association test results to generate findings.Findings The findings indicate seven themes of celebrity meaning, namely, personality, credibility, physical appearance, feelings, performance, values and cogent power. Most meanings were found to be transferred to a brand via the endorsement. The possibility of reverse meaning transfer and the change of celebrity meanings overtime were also observed.Research limitations/implications The major contribution of the present study is the development of a measurable and applicable model of meaning transfer in celebrity endorsements, along with a set of testable propositions.Practical implications The findings provide a guiding framework for practitioners who would like to use a celebrity endorsement strategy.Originality/value This is one of the first attempts to develop a comprehensive model of meaning transfer in celebrity endorsements that includes sub-constructs of “meaning” and the moderators in the process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose — The purpose of this study is to investigate the use and usability of e-books from the perspectives of users in an academic and research environment. Design/methodology/approach — This study involved an e-mail questionnaire to survey researchers in the academic and research environment of the Indian Institute of Science regarding their use of e-books. Findings — The responses indicated that the students tend to use this new technology more often than faculty members and staff. Those who did use e-books mostly used reference and technical material. The highest response was from the Centre for Ecological Science, followed by the Supercomputer Education and Research Centre, and then the Department of Molecular Reproduction and Development and Genetics. The majority of the respondents have used computers for over five years for a variety of purposes including e-mail communication, internet browsing and text processing as well as for other advanced uses such as numerical computing and DNA sequence analysis. However, the use of e-books appears to be very low, indicating a requirement for creating awareness and user education about both software and hardware related to e-books. Only 37 of the 104 respondents had used the free trial offer from Kluwer and Edutech eBooks during July 2004. Originality/value — There has been no previous study reported which has investigated users' perspectives of e-books in an academic and research environment in India using a questionnaire method. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]