Scientometric assessment of research publications from fisheries institutes under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) during 2009-2018

Abstract

The national fisheries research in India is spearheaded by domain-specific fisheries research institutions under the aegis of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi. The current study was undertaken to assess the temporal trends in research publications during the period 2009-2018, from eight fisheries research institutes under ICAR using ‘SciVal’, a web-based scientometric tool of Elsevier for measuring research performance. The data on various research metrics, such as the number of publications, their citations, field-weighted research impacts, number of publications in top journals, subject area categories and key phrases used in research outputs were extracted from the application. The assessment revealed that a total of 3263 papers were published by the fisheries research institutes under ICAR during the study period, which received 24,253 citations in total. The number of publications from the ICAR fisheries research institutes and their quality showed a steady increase over the years. The foremost journal for publishing Indian fisheries research outputs during the assessment period was the Indian Journal of Fisheries (408 papers; 12.5%) published by ICAR, New Delhi. The research focus of these institutes was found to be more towards the widely cultivated species, i.e., Penaeus (=Litopenaeus) vannamei and Pangasionodon hypophthalmus. The present study highlights the research areas with significant momentum and scope for future funding; provides insights on the research trends and necessary leads to prioritise research among the national fisheries research institutes under ICAR.