Growth of Solar Physics Research Output In India since 1960: A Scientometric Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to assess the current state of published output on ‘Solar Physics’ in India. In this context, a scientometric study was conducted to evaluate Solar Physics research during the period 1960-2014 from different perspectives. During the period, a total of 2066 articles were published on Solar Physics, which received 22254 citations. The average number of publications per year was 48.04 and the average number of citations per publication was 10.77. The publications peaked in the year 2014 with 168 publications and the highest number of citations (1546) was in 2009. The present study shows that Solar Physics research has increased steadily over the past 54 years on a sluggish rate. Articles on Solar Physics appeared in 92 journals, of which most active journal was “Solar Physics” published by Elsevier from Netherlands with 460 (22.265 %) of the total 2066 articles. Of the 1109 institutions that have contributed, Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Bangalore (549) is the most productive institution. Of the 65 Countries/territories which have participated in Solar Physics research, USA produced maximum number of 420 publications, with higher citations (8711). A Keyword analysis reveals that Corona, Flares, Magnetic Fields, Coronal Mass Ejections, Activity, Oscillation, Atmosphere are the most used keywords.