Skip to main content
Log in

Scientometric profile of Indian scientific output in life sciences with a focus on the contributions of women scientists

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstracts

An analysis of 9,957 papers published by Indian scientists and indexed by WoS in 12 sub-disciplines of life sciences during 2008–2009 indicates that academic institutions produced the highest number of papers. Of these, 340 (3.4 %) were contributed by female scientists exclusively and 4,671 (47 %) were written jointly by male and female scientists. Women scientists produced about 0.36 papers per author, while their male counter parts produced 0.50 papers per author. Significant number of women scientists was first author and about 23 % were corresponding authors in papers written jointly by both sexes. Women scientists emphasized on the sub-discipline of cell biology and reproductive biology and male scientists emphasized on the sub-discipline of zoology. Women scientists work in small teams and have very less international collaborative papers. Women scientists publish in low impact factor and domestic journals and also are cited less as compared to their male counter parts.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Abramo, G., Andrea D’Angelo, C., & Caprasecca, A. (2009). The contribution of star scientists to overall sex differences in research productivity. Scientometrics, doi:10.1007/s11192-008-2131-7.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Ajiferuke, I., Burrel, Q., & Tague, J. (1988). Collaborative coefficient: A single measure of the degree of collaboration in research. Scientometrics, 14, 421–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arruda, D., Bezerra, F., Neris, V. A., et al. (2009). Brazilian computer science research: Gender and regional distributions. Scientometrics, 79, 655–669.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Arunachalam, S., Srinivasan, R., & Raman, V. (1998). Science in India—A profile based on India’s publications as covered by Science Citation Index-1989–1992. Current Science, 74, 433–441.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bal, V. (2005). Women scientists in India: Nowhere near the glass ceiling. Current Science, 88, 872–878.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bordons, M., Morillo, F., Fernandez, M. T., & Gomez, I. (2003). One step further in the production of bibliometric indicators at the micro level: Differences by gender and professional category of scientists. Scientometrics, 57, 159–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borrego, A., Barrios, M., Villarroya, A., et al. (2010). Scientific output and impact of postdoctoral scientists: A gender perspective. Scientometrics, doi:10.1007/s11192-009-0025-y.

    Google Scholar 

  • Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://www.dst.gov.in.

  • Department of Science and Technology, Women scientists programs. Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://www.dst.gov.in/scientific-programme/women-scientists.htm.

  • Fox, M. F. (2005). Gender, family characteristics, and publication productivity among scientists. Social Studies of Science, 35, 131–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garg, K. C., & Dutt, B. (1992). Bibliometrics of Indian science as reflected through Science Citation Index. Journal of scientific and industrial research, 51, 329–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garg, K. C., Dutt, B., & Kumar, S. (2006). Scientometric profile of Indian science as seen through Science Citation Index. Annals of Library and Information Studies, 53, 114–125.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goel, K. (2002). Gender differences in publication productivity in psychology in India. Scientometrics, 55, 243–258.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, B. M., & Dhawan, S. M. (2009). Status of India in science and technology as reflected in its publications output in the SCOPUS database—1996–2006. Scientometrics, 80, 473–490.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, B. M., Kumar, S., & Aggarwal, B. S. (1999). A Comparison of productivity of male and female scientist of CSIR. Scientometrics, 45, 269–289.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, N., & Sharma, A. K. (2002). Women academic scientists in India. Social Studies of Science, 32, 901–915.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hasan, S. A., Sharma, M. K., Khilnani, S., & Luthra, R. (2012). Research productivity of female research scholars and their migration pattern in pursuit higher education and research. Current Science, 103, 611–612.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter, L. A., & Leahey, E. (2010). Parenting and research productivity: New evidence and methods. Social Studies of Science, 40, 433–451.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Indian National Science Academy. (2004). Science career for Indian women: An examination of Indian women’s access to and retention in scientific careers. Report, New Delhi October 2004. Retrieved April 4, 2013, from http://www.insaindia.org/Scienceservice/science.htm.

  • Lariviere, V., Vignola-Gagne, E., Villeneuve, C., et al. (2011). Sex differences in research funding, productivity and impact: An analysis of Quebec university professors. Scientometrics, doi:10.1007/s11192-011-0369-y.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ledin, A., Bornmann, L., Gannon, F., & Wallon, G. (2007). A persistent problem. EMBO Reports, 8, 982–987.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lemoine, W. (1992). Productivity patterns of men and women scientists in Venezuela. Scientometrics, 24, 281–295.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leta, J. (2003). The contribution of women in Brazilian science: A case study in astronomy, immunology and oceanography. Scientometrics, 57, 339–353.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lewison, G. (2001). The quantity and quality of female researchers: A bibliometric study of Iceland. Scientometrics, 52, 29–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Long, J. S. (1993). Women in science part 2, the impact enigma-why women biochemists papers are more cited than men’s. Current Comments, 11, 259–269.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mauleón, E., & Bordons, M. (2006). Productivity, impact and publication habits by gender in the area of materials science. Scientometrics, 66, 199–218.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mc Millan, G. S. (2009). Gender differences in patenting activity: An examination of the US biotechnology industry. Scientometrics, 80, 683–691. doi:10.1007/s11192-008-2101-0.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moya-Anegón, F., Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., Vargas-Quesada, B., et al. (2007). Scientific output by gender in Spain (Web of Science, 2004). Retrieved June 2, 2013, from www.academia.edu/1430683/Scientific_Output_by_Gender_in_Spain_WebofScience_2004.

  • Mozaffarian, M., & Jamali, H. R. (2008). Iranian women in science: A gender study of scientific productivity in an Islamic country. Aslib Proceedings, 60, 463–473.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Muñoz-Muñoz, A. M. (2005). The scholarly transition of female academics at the University of Granada (1975–1990). Scientometrics, 64, 325–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Naldi, F., Luzi, D., Valente, A., & Parenti, H. V. (2004). Scientific and technological performance by gender. In H. F. Moed et al. (Eds.), Handbook of quantitative science and technology research (pp. 299–314). The Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

  • Penas, C. S., & Willett, P. (2006). Gender differences in publication and citation counts in librarianship and information science research (Brief communication). Journal of Information Science, 32, 480–485.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prpic, K. (2002). Gender and productivity differentials in science. Scientometrics, 55, 27–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pudovkin, A., Kretschmer, H., Stegmann, T., & Garfield, E. (2012). Research evaluation part 1: Productivity and citedness of German medical research institute. Scientometrics, doi:10.1007/s11192-012-0659-z.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, A., & Braun, T. (1986). Relative indicators and relational charts for comparative assessment of publication output and citation impact. Scientometrics, 9, 281–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smykla, E., & Zippel, K., (2010). Literature review: Gender and international research collaboration. Retrieved June 2, 2013, from http://nuweb.newedu/zippel/nsf-workshop/Lit Review Oct 22_2010.pdf.

  • Sotudeh, H., & Khoshian, N. (2013). Gender differences in science: The case of scientific productivity in nano science and technology during 2005–2007. Scientometrics, doi:10.1007/s11192-013-1035-7.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symonds, M., Gemmell, N., Braisher, T., et al. (2006). Gender differences in publication output: towards an unbiased metric of research performance. PLoS One. www.plosone.org.

  • Telegraph India. Retrieved April 5, 2013, from http://www.telegraphindia.com/1100928/jsp/frontpage/story_12991055.jsp.

  • Vela, B., Caceres, P., & Cavero, J. M. (2012). Participation of women in software engineering publications. Scientometrics, 93, 661–679.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Webster, B. M. (2001). Polish women in science: A bibliometric analysis of polish science and its publications, 1980–1999. Research Evaluation, 10, 185–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to K. C. Garg.

Additional information

K.C.Garg—Ex-chief scientist, CSIR-NISTADS.

Appendix 1

Appendix 1

See Table 8

Table 8 Journals most commonly used by Indian scientists

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Garg, K.C., Kumar, S. Scientometric profile of Indian scientific output in life sciences with a focus on the contributions of women scientists. Scientometrics 98, 1771–1783 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1107-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1107-4

Keywords

Navigation