Indian-Science-Ascending.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Indian Science AscendingA Nature Index analysis Larissa Kogleck Subhra Priyadarshini Stephen Pincock Antoine Bocquet Chris Gilloch - Springer Nature INDIAN SCIENCE ASCENDING Indian Science AscendingA Nature Index analysis ABOUT SPRINGER NATURE Springer Nature is a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services. It is the world’s largest academic book publisher, as well as the publisher of the world’s highest impact journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. The company has almost 13,000 staff in over 50 countries and a turnover of approximately EUR 1.5 billion. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merging of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media. ABOUT NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP (NPG) Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high-impact scientific information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences. Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, as well as a range of prestigious academic and partner journals, including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 8 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and services, including news and comment from Nature, and the leading scientific jobs board Naturejobs. NATURE INDEX The Nature Index (www.natureindex.com) tracks the affiliations of research articles published in an independently selected group of 68 high- quality science journals, and charts publication productivity for institutions and countries. Article count (AC) includes the total number of affiliated articles. Weighted fractional count (WFC) accounts for the relative contribution of each author to an article and applies a weighting to correct imbalances in the Index’s subject coverage towards astrophysics. Weighted collaboration scores are based on the WFCs from bilateral collaborations, and are thus cumulative in case of multilateral collaborations. This report draws on Nature Index data derived from articles published in calendar year 2014. WFC is used throughout as the primary metric. CONFEDERATION OF INDIAN INDUSTRY The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) works to create and sustain an environment conducive to the development of India, partnering industry, Government, and civil society, through advisory and consultative processes. CII is a non-government, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organization, playing a proactive role in India’s development process. Founded in 1895, India’s premier business association has around 8000 members, from the private as well as public sectors, including SMEs and MNCs, and an indirect membership of over 200,000 enterprises from around 240 national and regional sectoral industry bodies. CII charts change by working closely with Government on policy issues, interfacing with thought leaders, and enhancing efficiency, competitiveness and business opportunities for industry through a range of specialized services and strategic global linkages. It also provides a platform for consensus-building and networking on key issues. Extending its agenda beyond business, CII assists industry to identify and execute corporate citizenship programmes. Partnerships with civil society organizations carry forward corporate initiatives for integrated and inclusive development across diverse domains including affirmative action, healthcare, education, livelihood, diversity management, skill development, empowerment of women, and water, to name a few. In its 120th year of service to the nation, the CII theme of Build India - Invest in Development: A Shared Responsibility, reiterates Industry’s role and responsibility as a partner in national development. The focus is on four key enablers: Facilitating Growth and Competitiveness, Promoting Infrastructure Investments, Developing Human Capital, and Encouraging Social Development. With 66 offices, including 9 Centres of Excellence, in India, and 8 overseas offices in Australia, Bahrain, China, Egypt, France, Singapore, UK, and USA, as well as institutional partnerships with 312 counterpart organizations in 106 countries, CII serves as a reference point for Indian industry and the international business community. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Copyright 2015 Macmillan Publishers Inc. A | Springer Nature INDIAN SCIENCE ASCENDING Indian Science AscendingA Nature Index analysis Larissa Kogleck Subhra Priyadarshini Stephen Pincock Antoine Bocquet Chris Gilloch - Springer Nature Springer Nature | B INDIAN SCIENCE ASCENDING Foreword Welcome to this first Nature Index report on science in India. In the following pages you will find a revealing snapshot of the high-quality research being produced by institutions in India as seen through the lens of the Nature Index, a database that tracks the affiliations of research articles published in an independently selected group of 68 superior science journals. In this report, we have used the index to put India’s output in the context of other countries with broadly similar economic conditions. A marked growth in the output of top-quality science and a particular strength in the broad disciple of chemistry are among the interesting findings described here. This report also reveals the patterns of international collaboration that connect Indian institutions to the global scientific community. Within the journals covered by the index, Indian academic institutions co-author more papers with international companies than with domestic firms. Since its launch in 2014, the Nature Index has provided a new way to look at the scientific literature and the research organizations that contribute to it. By focusing on articles in a small group of journals favoured by the scientific community as a place to publish their best research, it provides a level of analysis that is more targeted and hence more malleable. The Nature Index is a product of Springer Nature, a major new force in scientific, scholarly, professional and educational publishing created through the combination of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media in May 2015. By harnessing its combined expertise, scale and the reach of its brands, the company aims to serve academic researchers, students, teachers, institutions, professionals and the wider public. As such, we are pleased to present this report in partnership with the Confederation of Indian Industry. Antoine Bocquet Vice President Sales Japan, India, Southeast Asia and Oceania Managing Director, Nature Japan K.K./Springer Japan K.K. C | Springer Nature INDIAN SCIENCE ASCENDING Foreword This report begins with a chapter titled “India’s ascent towards world class science” which sums up in six simple words India’s standing in the world of science. The picture that it presents is also refreshingly different from the common perception about Indian scientific output. This perception – of India failing to produce anything of significant scientific value despite a huge young and capable population -- is largely based on media interest. Positive stories rarely attract the attention they deserve. Hopefully, this maiden CII – Nature Index report will change perceptions. It shows India at the 13th position globally on an index of world-class scientific journals. A good strategy, which this report adopts, is of comparing India with economically similar regions / countries. At the same time it presents concerns as they are – stagnant funding for R&D as a percentage of GDP, red tape, government indifference and “unfair appointments”. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently launching a single-window mechanism, called “Imprint”, for release of funds for R&D to academic institutions, along with a corpus of Rs 1 billion (Rs 1,000 crore), the required correction at government and policy level has begun. Hopefully soon then, our “historic love affair with chemistry”, as this report aptly highlights, will be replicated in other areas of science too. I hope this report, jointly produced by CII and Nature Index, will become more robust and expansive in years to come. Dr Naushad Forbes President Designate, CII & Director, Forbes Marshall Springer Nature | D INDIAN SCIENCE ASCENDING India’s ascent towards world-class science ransitioning from a developing less than 1 per cent of its gross domestic country to an emerging economic product to research (source: UNESCO Tsuperpower, India is experienc- data from 2011). Indeed, funding for ing an attendant surge in its share of the science and technology has hovered world’s high-quality scientific publica- at around this level for the past two 1,200 tions. This rise is clearly indicated in the decades. Nature Index, a database that tracks the While Russia, Brazil and Italy spent affiliations of research articles published at similar levels (between 1 and 1.5 per 1,000 in an independently selected group of 68 cent of their gross domestic products), high-quality science journals. among the group of comparators consid- Since 2012, the country’s weighted ered here only Italy achieved a weighted 800 fractional count (see box: Nature Index