A bibliometric analysis of literature on engineering research among BRIC countries
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-05-2017-0017 |
| Published date | 07 January 2019 |
| Date | 07 January 2019 |
| Pages | 9-14 |
| Author | Bakthavachalam Elango |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Collection building & management |
A bibliometric analysis of literature on
engineering research among BRIC countries
Bakthavachalam Elango
Library Department, IFET College of Engineering, Villupuram, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to make a quantitative analysis and compare the scientific productivity in the area of engineering among the
BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries.
Design/methodology/approach –The data were collected from SCImago. Various parameters such as number of articles and citable articles,
world share and rank, citations per paper and h-index, and international collaboration were analyzed.
Findings –There was a fluctuation trend in the pattern of international collaboration among the BRIC countries during the period. Among the top
countries, China ranked first in the world in terms of number of articles in the field of engineering research, whereas India was at the 8th rank,
Russia was at the 12th rank and Brazil was at the 18th rank. Among the BRIC countries, Russia slipped three positions from being at the 7th rank in
1996 to being at the 10th rank in 2016, while others improved their ranks.
Originality/value –The results of this study reveal publication trends and collaboration pattern of BRIC countries in the field of engineering which
may be useful for the academic fraternity and decision makers.
Keywords BRIC, Bibliometrics, Engineering, Scientometrics, Scimago, Research output
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The channel of science communication is based on the
publication of articles in journals for centuries (Miguel 2016).
Acronym, BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) was coined
by Jim O’Neil in a paper entitled “Building Better Global
Economies BRICs,”and it is estimated that BRIC economies
will overtake G7 economies by 2027. Further, GoldmanSachs
forecasts that Chinaand India would become the first and third
largest economies, respectively, by 2050 with Brazil andRussia
capturing the fifth and sixth spots, respectively. BRIC nations
account for much of the increase in science research
investments and scientific publications. From 2002 to 2007,
the current spending on science research was doubled by
China, India and Brazil (BRIC, 2016). BRIC countries have
been investing heavily in developing infrastructure for research
and development in different fields of science and technology,
as well as in the frontier areas such as atomic energy, space
sciences, electronics,telecommunications and more recently in
biotechnology (Kumar and Asheulova, 2011). As emerging
countries, BRIC countries show remarkable progress in many
science indicators, including publications or citation impact
(Wang and Levitt, 2012). Traditionally, research in academic
institutions in many of the developingcountries including India
has focused largely on pure science. However,with few notable
exceptions, institutions of higher education in India have
largely focused on undergraduate level teaching especially in
engineering(Raghavan and Rao, 2015).
2. Literature review
A number of studies have been conducted to examine the
scientific productivity in the field of engineering and its sub-
fields.
Franceschini and Maisano (2011) analyzed 23 of the major
scientific journals in the manufacturing engineering field with
following bibliometric indicators, namely, impact factor,
h-index, total numberof citations and h-spectrum.
Kademani et al. (2013) have made an attempt to
quantitatively and qualitatively highlight the growth and
development of world literatureon material science in terms of
publication outputand citations based on the data from Web of
Science. They studied the followingmajor parameters, namely,
growth of publications and citations, continent-wise
distribution of publications and citations, and country-wise
distributionof publications.
Singh and Gupta (2010) analyzed the engineering research
in India during 1999-2008. The parameters used are research
output, growth, global publication share, citation impact and
share of internationalcollaborative papers.
Hosamani and Bagalkoti (2014) carried out a scientometric
analysis on Indian engineering literature during 1999-2013
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/2514-9326.htm
Collection and Curation
38/1 (2019) 9–14
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2514-9326]
[DOI 10.1108/CC-05-2017-0017]
The author would like to thank anonymous referees for their helpful
comments and useful suggestions on the earlier version of the manuscript.
The author is very grateful to Dr G. Kannan (Professor of Mechanical
Engineering, IFET College of Engineering, Villupuram, India) who helped
him in proof-reading the manuscript.
Received 12 May 2017
Revised 13 March 2018
Accepted 13 April 2018
9
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