{"id":1215,"date":"2013-04-03T11:27:55","date_gmt":"2013-04-03T11:27:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/?p=1215"},"modified":"2013-04-03T11:27:55","modified_gmt":"2013-04-03T11:27:55","slug":"india-in-the-nature-asia-pacific-publishing-index-2012","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/2013\/04\/india-in-the-nature-asia-pacific-publishing-index-2012.html","title":{"rendered":"India in the Nature Asia-Pacific publishing index 2012"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NPI-AP2012\"<\/a>The Nature Publishing Group has just published its 2012 publishing index for the Asia-Pacific region. The index is a picture of high-quality research output from the region and ranks institutions and countries based on their publications in Nature journals.<\/p>\n

[The index is based on an article\u2019s corrected count (CC) \u2014 a calculation that\u00a0takes into account the number of affiliated institutions per author and\u00a0the percentage of authors per institution. All authors are factored to have\u00a0contributed equally to each article. The maximum CC for any article is 1.0.\u00a0The overall CC for a country\/territory reflects the sum of the corrected\u00a0counts of all institutions in that region.]<\/em><\/p>\n

During 2012, Japan, traditionally the leader in the region and still on top, saw close competition from\u00a0China in terms of research output. Japan was at number one (398 articles, CC: 233.87), closely followed by China (303 articles, CC: 150.02) and then Australia (223 articles, CC: 68.26).<\/p>\n

More here<\/a>\u00a0on how each country in the region is doing as seen through the lens of Nature journals.<\/p>\n

My area of interest in the index was India and where the country stands in the region. India comes in at number seven, exactly where it was the previous year (2011), sandwiched between Taiwan (number 6) and New Zealand (number 8). However, the number of papers published from India in Nature journals has gone down from 30 to 25 in this period.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to the index,\u00a0India is particularly strong in the life sciences. Three of the country\u2019s best institutions were ranked within the top 100 in the Asia-Pacific\u00a0region on the basis of publications in this field. They are the Institute\u00a0of Genomics and Integrative Biology in Delhi at rank no. 56, the Tata Institute\u00a0of Fundamental Research in Mumbai (rank 78) and the Jawaharlal Nehru\u00a0University in New Delhi (rank 82).<\/p>\n

On where the science and research scene in the country stands, here’s quoting from a summary in the index:<\/p>\n

“The country\u2019s (India’s) science effort has blown hot and cold over the past five \u00a0years, in some way reflecting the relationship at home between its\u00a0ambitious scientific plans and its struggle with poverty.<\/em><\/p>\n

The country\u2019s Corrected Count (CC) is prone to fluctuation: in 2009, India had a CC of \u00a06.84, well over double that of Taiwan. The next year this had plummeted \u00a0to 1.22 \u2014 below that of Bangladesh \u2014 only to reach a new high in 2011\u00a0of 8.53. In 2012, however, the CC fell again, to 8.24.<\/em><\/p>\n

This uneven research output reflects an inconsistency in government priority for science. The budget of March 2012 was disappointing,\u00a0particularly as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had previously raised\u00a0expectations by suggesting that India should double the proportion of \u00a0GDP spent on R&D. In the end, however, the budget only provided for\u00a0a 5% increase, about half the rate of inflation, leaving research outlays\u00a0at around 1% of GDP.<\/em><\/p>\n

There were bright spots for India\u2019s science community, such as the announcement of a plan to launch a satellite to orbit Mars in late 2013.\u00a0The government also outlined a five-year plan earmarking US$24 billion for R&D in six key scientific departments. This is more than 2.5 times what the country had spent on science over the previous five-year period.<\/em><\/p>\n

India\u2019s economic boom is slowing \u2014 growing by 5.5% last year, the lowest rate since 2004. Science and technology, expressed through improved agriculture, increased energy efficiency, better infrastructure and higher\u00a0levels of innovation, are expected to provide a boost. But the value of\u00a0innovation is sometimes questioned. A former chair of the Indian Space\u00a0Research Organisation, G. Madhavan Nair, described the Mars venture\u00a0as \u201ca half-baked mission being attempted in undue haste with misplaced\u00a0objectives\u201d. Others consider it an unnecessary expense in a country where\u00a0many children are malnourished and homes lack sanitation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Last July, India suffered the world\u2019s biggest electricity blackout and, according to the OECD, a quarter of the population still has no access to\u00a0power. Yet many oppose, on environmental grounds, the 300 proposed\u00a0Himalayan dams, which would provide much-needed power. In\u00a0agricultural science too there are mixed messages. In October, the science\u00a0minister, S. Jaipal Reddy, cast doubt on the future of genetic engineering.\u00a0\u201cThe science is not clear,\u201d he said, in response to the proposal set out by\u00a0a panel of scientists which was appointed by India\u2019s Supreme Court. The\u00a0panel recommended a 10-year moratorium on trials of GM crops after\u00a0opposition to the method. The court is hearing a case to stop GM trials\u00a0in which the government itself is a defendant.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Here’s hoping 2013 will be a better year for India in terms of scientific output and research papers in Nature journals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Nature Publishing Group has just published its 2012 publishing index for the Asia-Pacific region. The index is a picture of high-quality research output from the region and ranks institutions and countries based on their publications in Nature journals.  Read more<\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,7,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1215","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academics","category-publishing","category-sciences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1215"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1215\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nature.com\/indigenus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}