The cross-country evaluation of nuclear science and technology publications
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/CC-10-2021-0029 |
| Published date | 14 September 2022 |
| Date | 14 September 2022 |
| Pages | 34-39 |
| Author | Fayaz Ahmad Loan,Ufaira Yaseen Shah |
The cross-country evaluation of nuclear
science and technology publications
Fayaz Ahmad Loan and Ufaira Yaseen Shah
Centre of Central Asian Studies, University of Kashmir, Srinagar, India
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to measure the quality of nuclear science and technology research using the scientometric indicators, like
activity index, attractivity index and publication efficiency index.
Design/methodology/approach –The present scientometric study is based on the bibliographic data extracted from the core collection of the Web
of Science database from 1989 to 2019. The data was collected using the advanced search feature, with a search string of 28 related terms. The
bibliographic data for all the journal articles, excluding all other formats, was downloaded for statistical analysis.
Findings –The present study highlights the growth pattern and the research efforts devoted to the field of nuclear science and technology
worldwide, as reflected through the Core Collection of the Web of Science database, for 31 years from 1989 to 2019. The USA has emerged as
the topmost producer, with a total share of almost 29% with respect to the world literature followed by Japan, Germany, France and UK.
However, the relative citation impact has been the highest for Netherlands followed by the USA, Germany, France and UK, respectively. The
study depicted that the activity index, also called as the relative performance indicator, has been the highest for the USA, whereas the
attractivity index has been the highest for China, indicating its dominance in attracting citations to its publications in the field of nuclear science
and technology. The publication efficiency index, the value has been the maximum for Iran, for which the value has been greater than 1 (1.618).
The measure suggests that Iran’s research effectiveness in the field of nuclear science and technology has been more than the research effort
devoted to the field.
Research limitations/implications –The paper was based on the data retrieved from a single database, and the results may vary across other
databases. Hence, caution should be taken while generalizing the findings.
Originality/value –Several scientometric studies have taken place in the field of nuclear science and technology, part icularly in its allied branches,
but none of the studies has focused on evaluating the research efforts carried out by the countries in terms of activity index, attractivity index and
publication efficiency index, and the present study is an attempt to fill the gap.
Keywords Scientometrics, Bibliometrics, Activity index, Attractivity index, Publication efficiency index, Nuclear science and technology
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Human knowledge has exploded in recent years, especially in
science and technology disciplines.As the scientific knowledge
expands, the strength and number of researchers also increase.
Every day, a large amount of literature is published worldwide.
Analysis of publication growth rates can provide useful results
in terms of the quantity and quality of scientific literature and
the efficiency of authors. The analysis of scientometric aspects
in scientific publications is an important endeavour of recent
information science research. Scientometrics is an important
area of knowledge becauseit represents a unique set of methods
for monitoring and analyzing information resources and
managing them in scientific and organizational contexts. This
may be because the scientometric methods are being used to
determine publication count, authorship, citation analysis and
impact of research in a particular domain, which in turn are
used to determine the dynamics of the area under study.
Scientometrics is currently a widely used analytical tool for
monitoring and analyzing research output from individuals,
organizations, institutions, countries, etc. for a variety of
purposes, and includes both quantitative and qualitative
research analysis. As the emergence of new fields of researchis
taking place rapidly, governments and research institutions are
expressing their interests in applyingquantitative techniques to
measure their scientific growth and assess the strength and
weakness of scientific research carried out in any field of
knowledge. Such studies help them to regulate the science
policymaking at institutional and national levels. Vinkler
(1986) states that measuring the impact of scientific
publications is fundamental for the financial decision-making
process at different levels. In the present study, an attempthas
been made to measure the growth of research productivity and
the research efforts done by the nations in the field of nuclear
science and technology using various scientometric indicators
like activity index (AI), attractivityindex (AAI) and publication
efficiency index (PEI) (discussed in the latter part of this
paper).
The current issue and full text archiveof this journal is available on Emerald
Insight at: https://www.emerald.com/insight/2514-9326.htm
Collection and Curation
42/1 (2023) 34–39
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2514-9326]
[DOI 10.1108/CC-10-2021-0029]
Received 30 October 2021
Revised 26 August 2022
Accepted 26 August 2022
34
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