Annals of Library and Information Studies
22
Vol. 56, March 2009, pp. 22-28
ANN. LIB. INF. STU., MARCH 2009
Scientometric analysis of area-wise publications in the field of
structural engineering: a case study of SERC, India
S. Maheswarana, R.D. Sathish Kumarb and K.R. Sridharanc
a
Scientist, Information Division, Structural Engineering Research Centre, CSIR Campus, Taramani,
Chennai -600113, Email: smahes@sercm.org
b
Information Officer, Information Division, Structural Engineering Research Centre, CSIR Campus, Taramani,
Chennai -600113, Email: rdskumar@sercm.org
c
Head & Deputy Director, Information Division, Structural Engineering Research Centre, CSIR Campus, Taramani,
Chennai -600113, Email: krs@sercm.org
The study is based on the research publications generated by Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC) during the
years 2002-2006. The data was collected from the annual reports of SERC and analyzed based on Impact Factor (IF) provided
by Journal Citation Report (JCR). Highlights yearly output, publications in national and international journals, number of papers
in SCI and non-SCI journals, Normalized Impact Factor (NIF) per paper, number of papers in the proceedings of national and
international conferences / workshops / seminars / symposia etc., category-wise distribution of papers in different NIF ranges, the
proportion of high NIF papers and papers above the average NIF. This study reveals the area-wise impact of the research
conducted by the Centre in particular.
Introduction
Information is the result or product of processing data.
It provides / leads to unearthing knowledge or
intelligence. This knowledge in turn leads to innovation
or development. Such innovation or development brings
in further information which adds to the earlier
knowledge, which helps further development. This is the
technological development cycle which plays a vital role
in the growth and sustenance of any R&D environment.
An important and tangible component of studies in
information sciences is citation analysis, for assessing
the extent of utility of research publications in journals,
conference/ seminar/ symposium proceedings and other
literature, at national and international levels. The
Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC),
Chennai, is one of the national laboratories set up by the
Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR),
Government of India. During the four decades since its
inception, it has built up excellent facilities and expertise
for the analysis, design and testing of structures and
structural components. The services of the Centre are
being extensively used by the Central and State
Governments and public and private sector undertakings
in India as well as foreign countries. The SERC scientists
serve on many national and international committees and
the Centre is recognized at the national and international
levels as a leading research institution in the field of
structural engineering.
In this paper, a scientometric analysis of research outputs,
such as, papers published by SERC in international,
national journals and SCI, non-SCI journals, and
proceedings of conferences / workshops / seminars /
symposia (hereafter, referred to as Proc. C/W/S/S) of
national and international level, is carried out. This
analytical study covers data for the period 2002-2006.
The significant research outputs of any R&D laboratory
may be identified by the research papers published,
patents filed, and cash in flow arising from the research
know-how / expertise developed. Apart from the above,
there are other outputs like technical reports based on
the in-house R&D, sponsored / grant-in-aid projects and
consultancy / technical services.The research papers
published in the journals, both in international and
national levels, number of papers in SCI and non-SCI
journals, NIF per paper, number of papers in the Proc.
C/W/S/S at national and international etc., distribution
MAHESWARAN, KUMAR & SRIDHARAN: SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS
of papers under different topics and the proportion of
high NIF papers and papers above the average NIF are
studied.
Sen1 has described how the idea of NIF came into being,
and the method of its determination, and observed that
the ranking of a journal in its own category is better
revealed by the NIF and average NIF seems to provide
better indication of the comparative performance of a
set of laboratories engaged in diverse areas of research.
Aneta and Irina2 have highlighted in their study that
evaluation of scientific journals was always at the focus
of the attention of bibliometric and webometric studies.
Their analysis contributed to a better understanding of
the cognitive structure of the field under study and helped
to identify the range of scientific journals of importance
in a certain field. In their analysis, they introduced
standard impact factor for the evaluation of journals from
databases of JCR.
The IF of a journal is basically a ratio between cited and
citable items published in a journal and indicates the
relative standing and influence of the journal within its
disciplinary boundaries. Due to diversity of citing
behaviour in different disciplines, Balaban3 and Makino4
argued that direct comparison between IFs of journals
dedicated to different disciplines is inadequate. Using
the same rationale, it is not advisable to consider IFs of
journals for an inter-institutional or intra-country
assessment of research performance in different
disciplines. To overcome these, use of NIF has been
suggested. Different authors have suggested different
methods to normalize the IF of journals5-8. According to
Sen9, the IF of the publishing journal is divided by the
highest IF of the journal within a subfield excluding
review journals, which is then multiplied by a constant
number. Nagpaul10 has applied the method suggested by
Sen.
Objectives of the study
The study has been conducted with data on journal
articles generated by SERC during 2002-2006. A large
number of papers published in the proceedings of
national and international conferences / workshops /
seminars / symposia etc., are included for the better
understanding but excluded from the purview of this
study as the JCR IF for these publications are not
available.
23
The objective of this study is to identify trends, if any,
on the basis of the following quantitative and qualitative
parameters:
•
To consider the papers in SCI and non-SCI
journals and papers in the Proc. of national and
international C/W/S/S;
•
To measure the impact rate in terms of NIF per
paper in SCI journals;
•
To identify the papers in different NIF ranges;
•
To find the papers above the average NIF; and
•
To collect and analyze data on the area-wise
topics of research papers in SCI & Non-SCI
journals and papers in the proceedings of
national and international C/W/S/S.
Methodology
The Annual Reports of SERC11 during the years 20022006 were taken as the ‘data base’ for the present study.
The data consists of the bibliographic information of a
total of 639 papers. The number of papers resulting from
in-house R&D as well as sponsored / grant-in-aid R&D
projects, the work related to which primarily get
published as research papers, were counted on an annual
basis. Other types of projects namely consultancy
projects, technical services, tower testing, software
release etc., seldom contribute to the generation of new
findings (although they solve some current, urgent,
contemporary, specialized problem) and do not therefore
constitute a source of research output for the production
of publications. The well-established procedure in
scientometrics, viz. that of establishing of an impact
factor to a publication based on JCR, particularly in the
context of traditional sciences, is based on the number
of citations received by a publication in a two-year
preceding period amongst the researchers in a given field
/ area of study, world-wide, the so called Science Citation
Index (SCI). However, the direct applicability of this
procedure faces bottlenecks in fields such as engineering
and applied research, which are characterized by (i) a
lot lesser number of people engaged in research vis-àvis traditional subjects, (ii) limited publication activity
in a smaller number of journals, nationally or worldwide,
and (iii) more presentations in conference proceedings,
seminars, workshops. All of these contribute to lesser
number of cross-referencing of each other’s work and
24
ANN. LIB. INF. STU., MARCH 2009
hence do not lend themselves to a scientometric
evaluation of their true contribution to the growth of
knowledge across different disciplines. Nevertheless,
such papers do go through a process of peer review at
each forum mentioned above and hence definitely do
carry an impact value.
from 13.89% in the year 2002 to 59.01% in the year 2006.
A conscious preference to publish papers in top-ranking
foreign journals is seen. It is found that there is an increase
from 13.89% to 40.91% in the publications in SCI
journals over the years, while there is a decline in
percentage in non-SCI journals from 86.11 to 59.09%.
Linda Butler and Martin Visser12 have reported the first
results of the extension of citation analysis to ‘nonsource’ items, which is one strand of an extension study
of quantitative performance indicators used in the
assessment of research. They have also quoted that many
types of publications are visible in ISI data – books, book
chapters, journals not indexed by ISI and some
conference publications, and concluded that a
considerable amount of analysis needs to be undertaken
and tested, where citations are limited to source items.
An earlier study reveals that about 8.29% papers cited /
referred in the Journal of Structural Engineering are
from conference / workshops / seminars / symposia etc13.
The total number of papers published during the period
of study is 639, of which papers in journals constitute
around 34.27%, papers in the Proc. C/W/S/S at national
level 36.62%, and papers in Proc. C/W/S/S of
international level at 29.11%. It is found that around
10.64% of papers were published in SCI journals, and
23.63% of papers in non-SCI journals. It is to be noted
here, that the large number of papers published in the
Proc. of C/W/S/S as enumerated in Table 1, do not lend
to an evaluation of their true contribution to the growth
of knowledge in the given field, for lack of direct cited
impact value.
The methodology followed in this study is analogous to
the methodology of an earlier study conducted by Jeevan
and Gupta14. The JCR IFs have been used to assess their
impact on future research in the discipline concerned.
The JCR has been used to find out the IF of the journals
and SCI data has been utilized for quantifying the actual
impact of the publications. The maximum IF valued
journal has been identified and assigned a value of 10
for every year of study. The Normalising Weightage
Factor (NWF) is calculated as the factor by which the
maximum IF value in a particular year has to be weighted
to make it equal to 10.
i.e , NWF =10 / IF
i
i
where i denotes the particular year.
Then the IF values of each paper in that particular year
is multiplied by NWF to get its corresponding
i
Normalized Impact Factor (NIF).
Results and discussions
The NIF of papers in different ranges has been
summarized in Table 2. It has been seen that between
63% and 80% papers have NIF >3 except for the year
2004, when a large percentage of 43.75% of papers had
NIF > 3. This, in turn, means that about 20-40 % of the
papers (in journals) have NIF < 3. From the figures, one
can also identify that more than a two third of the papers
have been placed in higher impact journals, and that 3040% of the papers have appeared in journals with NIF
>6 except for the year 2004. The number of papers having
above average NIF is also presented in Table 2. About
40-55% papers are above the NIF level. The average NIF
is around 5.000 throughout the period of study except
for the year 2004, where NIF is around 2.759. As a whole,
about 48.59 % papers are above the Ave. NIF level.
Structural engineering based research is pursued in a wide
range of sub fields world over and this paper attempts to
identify the major specializations and gives a clear
indication of the different specializations. The data for
SERC is further categorized into six major sub-divisions
as RD-1 to RD-6 as follows:
Data Analysis
Table 1 shows the year-wise distribution of papers
published in India and outside India, papers in SCI and
non-SCI journals and papers in the national and
international proceedings for the years 2002-2006. The
scientists of SERC have published their papers in foreign
journals constituting considerably increased percentage
1. RD-1: Wind Engineering & Experimentation,
Structural Dynamics
and Earthquake
Engineering
2. RD-2: Fatigue and Fracture, Experimental
Mechanics, Shock and Vibration
3. RD-3: Steel Structures – Transmission Line
35
45
59
44
219
2003
2004
2005
2006
Total
01
02
09
07
04
23
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Total
Nos.
-
40.91
47.46
48.89
77.14
86.11
93
26
31
23
8
5
-
59.01
52.54
51.11
22.86
13.89
68
18
19
16
10
5
Nos.
-
40.91
32.20
35.56
28.57
13.89
%
Papers in SCI journals
151
26
40
29
25
31
-
59.09
67.80
64.44
71.43
86.11
Papers in Non-SCI
ournals
Nos.
%
234
38
31
21
78
66
National
186
38
69
33
35
11
International
Papers in Proc. C/W/S/S
-
22.22
36.84
56.25
20.00
20.10
%
24
06
06
06
04
02
Nos.
-
33.33
31.58
37.50
40.00
40.00
%
21
08
06
01
04
02
Nos.
-
44.45
31.58
6.25
40.00
40.00
%
No. of papers in different NIF ranges
3.001 – 6.000
6.001 – 10.000
68
18
19
16
10
5
Total no. of
papers
-
5.108
5.033
2.759
5.359
5.765
Ave. NIF
Per Paper
31
10
08
07
04
02
Papers above
the ave. NIF
48.59
55.56
42.11
43.75
40.00
40.00
Ave. NIF
% of papers
above the
Table 2 — R&D Publications in journals in different NIF ranges, Ave. NIF per paper, Percentage of papers above the Ave. NIF
126
18
28
22
27
31
Country of publications
India
Outside India
Nos.
%
Nos.
%
0.001 – 3.000
36
2002
Year
Total no. of
papers in
journals
Year
Table 1 — R&D publications by country of publications, papers in SCI, non-SCI J & Proc. C/W/S/S
MAHESWARAN, KUMAR & SRIDHARAN: SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS
25
5
23
3
1
66
RD-4
RD-5
RD-6
Total
5
Total
RD-3
-
RD-6
15
1
RD-5
RD-2
3
RD-4
19
-
RD-3
RD-1
-
RD-2
Nat.
1
RD-1
11
—
—
2
—
7
2
2002
Int.
31
5
6
5
2
8
5
2002
Non-SCI
Year
Topics
SCI
Year
Topics
78
5
22
21
3
20
7
Nat.
10
1
-
4
1
3
1
SCI
25
3
7
5
4
4
2
Non-SCI
16
2
-
8
1
3
2
29
1
7
9
5
3
4
2004
SCI
Non-SCI
19
-
2
8
-
8
1
SCI
2005
40
2
17
7
4
5
5
Non-SCI
18
2
3
6
1
2
4
SCI
26
1
13
3
-
3
6
2006
Non-SCI
#
68
5
6
29
3
16
9
%
SCI
2003
35
2
10
12
1
6
4
Int.
21
—
15
—
2
3
1
Nat.
2004
33
5
1
14
1
9
3
Int.
31
6
7
10
—
2
6
69
14
21
13
2
11
8
2005
Nat.
Int.
38
6
3
2
1
10
16
38
3
15
10
1
4
5
2006
Nat.
Int.
234
18
50
56
11
50
49
Nat.
99.99
7.35
8.82
42.65
4.41
23.53
Total
100
7.69
21.37
23.93
4.70 5
21.37
20.94
%
Total
13.23
#
Table 4 — Area-wise distribution of papers in national and international papers in Proc. C/W/S/S
2003
Table 3 — Area-wise publications in SCI and Non-SCI Journals
186
24
47
51
2.69
37
22
Int.
151
12
50
29
15
23
22
100
12.90
25.27
27.42
19.89
11.83
%
100
7.95
33.11
19.21
9.93
15.23
14.57
Non-SCI
%
26
ANN. LIB. INF. STU., MARCH 2009
48.53%
33
24
Total
23
66.67
2
RD-6
-
25.00
2
50.00
RD-5
4
28.57
7
28.57
RD-4
8
33.33
1
33.33
RD-3
1
58.82
35.29
RD-2
6
10
68
21
-
66.67
2
3
33.33
1
5.094
50.00
4
8
25.00
2
4.515
46.43
13
28
42.86
13
5.388
66.67
2
3
33.33
1
4.482
52.94
9
17
5.88
1
3.553
33.33
3
3.958
9
33.33
3
22.22
2
44.44
4
RD-1
% of papers
above the
Ave. NIF
Papers above
the Ave. NIF
Total No. of Ave. NIF per
Papers
Paper
6.001 – 10.000
Nos.
%
No. of Papers in Different NIF Ranges
3.001 – 6.000
Nos.
%
0.001 – 3.000
Nos.
%
Subject
Table 5 — Breakup of Area-wise Distribution of SCI Papers in Different NIF Ranges, Ave. NIF per paper, Percentage of papers above the Ave. NIF
MAHESWARAN, KUMAR & SRIDHARAN: SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS
27
Towers and Skeletal Structures
4. RD-4: Computer Aided Analysis, Design of
Structures
5. RD-5: Concrete Composites and Materials,
Reinforced Concrete Structures
6. RD-6: Construction Engineering & Prestressed
Concrete
Of the papers published in SCI journals, RD-4 topped
the list with 42.65% followed by RD-2 (23.53%), RD-1
(13.23), RD-5 (8.82%), RD-6 (7.35%) and RD-3
(4.41%). From the above it is quite clear that computerbased analytical research in structural engineering is cited
more compared to other sub-divisions (Table 3).
In the non-SCI journals category, 33.11% of papers
belong to RD-5 followed by RD-4 (19.21%), RD-2
(15.23%), RD-1 (14.57%), RD-3 (9.93%) and RD-6
(7.95%).
Table 4 shows that the sub field RD-4 has more number
of papers in both national and international Proc. C/W/
S/S as 23.93% and 27.42% respectively, with minimum
difference between other categories except RD-3 which
is 4.70% and 2.69% respectively.
Table 5 depicts sub field distribution of SERC papers in
different NIF ranges. It is seen that 100% of papers on
RD-6 (though the total number of papers is only 3) were
placed in journals having NIF > 3. The largest numbers
of papers (28 out of 68) were from RD-4. Of these
71.43% were placed in journals with NIF > 3; the rest
28.57% were placed in NIF < 3. The number of papers
in the sub fields of structural engineering having above
the average NIF is also presented. About 48.53 % papers
are above the Ave. NIF level.
In summary, it is found that of the 68 papers published
in all subdivisions, 23 (33.82%) in journals with NIF >
0 < 3, 25 (36.76%) in journals with NIF > 3 < 6, and 20
(29.41%) in journals with NIF > 6 < 10. In all, 45
(66.17%) papers were published in journals having NIF
> 3 < 10 that is majority of the papers were placed in
moderately high impact journals.
Conclusion
As a substantial portion of R&D findings in engineering
fields such as structural engineering are documented in
non-journal format primary information sources, such
as proceedings of conferences/workshops/seminars and
28
ANN. LIB. INF. STU., MARCH 2009
symposia, it is concluded that there exists a definite need
for consideration of such non-journal sources of
information by citation agencies such as Web of Science,
whilst analyzing the outcome and impact of research
publications emanating from various researchers.
Acknowledgments
The paper has been published with the kind approval of
Director, Structural Engineering Research Centre,
Chennai. The constant encouragement, and support
provided by the Director as well as the Chairman,
Publication Committee are gratefully acknowledged. The
data collection and entry work of Ms. M. Iswarya, Project
Assistant, is gratefully acknowledged by the authors.
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