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Various methods have been suggested in the literature to normalise the impact factor of journals. However, these methods have their own limitations. Present communication suggests a simple alternative method to normalise the impact factor of journals based on average impact of journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An analysis of 11067 papers published by Indian scientists and indexed by Science Citation Index (SCI) CD-ROM for the year 1997 indicates that academic institutions (universities and colleges) are the major contributors to the scientific publications output. Major contribution came from 29 institutions, which contributed about 45% of the total Indian scientific output. Based on the values of different impact indicators (normalized impact per paper, publication effective index and relative quality index) TIFR outperforms all other institutions on different impact indicators. Fifty seven percent of the output is concentrated in physical sciences, chemical and medical sciences. Indian scientists widely publish their findings in journals published from the scientifically advanced countries of the West. Based on these values of the Normalized Impact Factor (NIF), it is observed that about two-third of the total papers have appeared in low and medium NIF journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the poor citation of Indian science journals. It says that only 46 out of 1000 Indian science periodicals were indexed by multidisciplinary database Science Citation Index Expanded (SCIE). It states that 39% of 5317 articles and reviews found in 46 Indian science periodicals were cited in January 2006 to June 2009. It adds that poor citation is caused by poor circulation, reduced frequency of publication, and non-availability of said periodicals in the Open Access mode.

Examination of 2450 papers published by foreign authors in 284 Indian science journals from 1311 institutions spread over 102 countries indicates that Asian countries are the largest contributors to these journals. Turkey, USA, Iran, China and Nigeria contributed to about 48% of the total foreign-authored publications. Most of the prolific institutions are situated in Turkey and Iran. The largest numbers of contributions are in the discipline of medicine followed by chemistry and material science. The proportion of foreign authored contributions to Indian science journals has witnessed a three-fold increase in 2006 as compared to July 1982 - June 1984 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on Mausam, a journal that publishes results of original scientific research in the field of meteorology and atmospheric sciences. He argues that the journal is not being indexed by the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) despite being published for more than 50 years. He suggests that the journal needs to include scientists and researchers from abroad and needs to change its name in English, so that it would have larger circulation.

Examines the R&D efforts in the field of forest mycology (study of fungi) with a primary focus on the global trends of publication output and its citation impact for the papers published during 1987-2008. The results indicate that number of publications have increased significantly especially during 2004 -2008. A total of 3313 publications scattered over 619 journal titles originating from 50 countries and 839 institutions indicates that USA tops the list in the publication output, while Sweden does in the citation impact. China leads in terms of highest rate of annual growth of published papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]