Mapping of Indian neuroscience research: a scientometric analysis of research output during 1999-2008.

OBJECTIVE: This study analyses the research output in India in neurosciences during the period 1999-2008 and the analyses included research growth, rank, global publications' share, citation impact, share of international collaborative papers and major collaborative partner countries and patterns of research communication in most productive journals. It also analyses the characteristics of most productive institutions, authors and high-cited papers. The publication output and impact of India is also compared with China, Brazil and South Korea.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Scopus Citation database was used for retrieving the publications' output of India and other countries in neurosciences during 1999-2008.

RESULTS: India's global publications' share in neurosciences during the study period was 0.99% (with 4503 papers) and it ranked 21 st among the top 26 countries in neurosciences. The average annual publication growth rate was 11.37%, shared 17.34% of international collaborative papers and the average citation per paper was 4.21. India was far behind China, Brazil and South Korea in terms of publication output, citation quality and share of international collaborative papers in neurosciences.

CONCLUSION: India is far behind in terms of publication output, citation quality and share of international collaborative papers in neurosciences when compared to other countries with an emerging economy. There is an urgent need to substantially increase the research activities in the field of neurosciences in India.