A Scientometric Profile of Prof. Lalji Singh As Seen Through Web of Science and Scopus
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Annals of Library and Information Studies Vol. 60, September 2013, pp. 195-203 A scientometric profile of Prof. Lalji Singh as seen through Web of Science and Scopus Bhaskar Mukherjee Associate Professor, Department of Library & Information Science, Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur, Email: [email protected] Received 25 April 2013; revised 24 July 2013 The paper presents the bibliometric characteristics including authorship pattern, citations received and relative performance of Prof. Lalji Singh an eminent Indian scientist in the field of genome analysis, DNA finger printing, etc. The study is based on the publication data indexed in Web of Science and Scopus. Results show that 222 unique articles have been indexed in the two databases with an average of 7-8 articles per year. Of the 222 articles only 18 articles appeared in Indian journals. Most of the articles were published when he served at Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, Hyderabad during 1987-2011. Authorship pattern of Prof. Singh indicates that he is serving as a leader of his research term and K Thangaraj is the fellow scientist with whom he wrote most. Almost all his articles appear in high-impact journals. The h-index of Prof. Singh is 30 in both the databases. He has received fellowships of all major national science academies as also third world academy. The study concludes with a remark that Prof. Singh can be a ‘role model’ for younger research to follow. Keywords: Lalji Singh, Scientometric, Bibliometric profile Introduction driving force which takes one anywhere. … I think India is perhaps one of the few cultures of the what is needed in India today is a destruction of the world where the pursuit of science has been more or defeatist spirit”. less continuous from the earliest to the present. The PM, at the Science Congress, addressed how From the 5th to the 12th centuries, Indian science saw students of sciences opted for non-science careers its greatest flowering when Aryabhatta, Bhaskara, after education. "While it is true that science and Brahmagupta, and others contributed a lot to the engineering continue to attract the best students, many fields of mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry. But of them later opt for other careers because of poor science in India suffered a decline after the 12th prospects in science." He also referred to a recent century because of various reasons. In the last 66 survey of 2000 Indian women PhD holders in science years of independence, India has developed quite a which had found 60% of them unemployed. The main big research infrastructure with over 550 universities, reason was discrimination and unlike the public 15,600 colleges, 17 IITs, 13 IIMs and a number of image, 'family reasons' was cited by only a few in R&D institutes. However India is beginning to trail in explaining their unemployment. Public image is one comparison not only with other countries but also of the encouraging factors for improvement of life. with its own past performance. PM Manmohan Singh, K.S. Krishnan writing a book review commented in his speech at the 99th Indian National Science that “most of the developing countries lack ‘role Congress, Bhubhneshwar, mentioned that "India's model’ to motivate other scientists. One of the relative position in the world of science had been factors that have inspired more men/women to pursue declining and we have been overtaken by countries scientific careers has been having examples of like China." successful men/women who have done the same. The nagging problem may be multifaceted- including There are only few individuals and institutions of funds, infrastructure or government policies, lack of excellence now in India. Individuals are the basic spirit, personal interests, dedication etc. The great foundations of any institution. If we can highlight scientist, C.V. Raman once mentioned , “What we those individuals who have reached the top positions lack is perhaps courage, what we lack is perhaps a in academic and research life, as role-model scientist 196 ANN. LIB. INF. STU.; SEPTEMBER 2013 in their respective fields, it may stimulate the younger Edinburgh University, UK [Commonwealth generation to emulate them. This pro-active process Commission, UK] may also help our younger scientists to prove • 1992: CSIR Technology Award – for biological themselves as another significant scientist in their sciences [Council of Scientific & Industrial domain. In the present study, we study Prof. Lalji Research, New Delhi] Singh’s research career through the analysis of his • 1995: Professor Vishwanath Memorial Lecture research papers. Award [Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi A brief profile of Prof. Lalji Singh • 1998: Indian Academy of Neurology Oration Prof. Lalji Singh (hereinafter Prof. Singh) was born [Indian Academy of Neurology, Bangalore] on 5th July 1947 in Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh. After • 1998: Scroll of Honour: Outstanding Forensic completing Masters Degree in Zoology from Banaras Expert Award – for Indianization of DNA Hindu University in 1966, he joined research and was Fingerprinting Technology [The Medico Legal awarded Ph.D. in 1971 for his work on "Evolution of Society, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, karyotypes in snakes" from the same university. He New Delhi] started his scientific career as Research Associate at • 2002: TWAS Fellowship [Third World Academy the Department of Zoology, Banaras Hindu of Sciences Trieste, Italy] University during 1970-1972 and later on was Pool • 2002: New Millennium Plaques of Honour – Officer at the Calcutta University during April - 2001-2002 award for outstanding services in the September 1974. By his dedication, hard work and field of Biological Sciences [By the Prime intelligence, he received Commonwealth Fellowship Minister of India at the 89th Session of the Indian and went to Europe in 1974 to carry out research at Science Congress-2002] the Edinburgh University U.K from 1974 to 1976. • He worked with Calcutta University as Guest 2003: Vigyan Gaurav Award [Council of Science Scientist (October 1976 - April 1977), Edinburgh & Technology, Government of Uttar Pradesh] • University, U.K. as Research Associate (October 2004: Honorary D.Sc. degree [Banaras Hindu 1977 to 1979), Australian National University, University, Varanasi] • Canberra, as Visiting Fellow (July to September 2004: Padma Shri [Government of India] 1979) and again Edinburgh University, U.K. as • 2004 : FICCI Award 2002-03 for R&D in Life Research Associate (October 1979 to May 1987). Sciences [Federation of Indian Chambers of In June 1987 Prof. Singh joined Centre for Cellular Commerce and Industry, New Delhi] and Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad as • 2006 : J C Bose National Fellowship [Department senior scientist. In July 1998 he joined as Director of Science & Technology] of CCMB. After serving as Head of one of the • 2007 : Sir Edward Mellanby Memorial Lecture premier R&D institute for almost 15 years, in August, [Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow] 2011 he joined as Vice-chancellor of Banaras Hindu • 2008 : CSIR Technology Award for Life Sciences University–one of the most prestigious universities in – 2008 [CSIR, New Delhi] India. He has shown his research expertise in the • 2009: Life Time Achievement Award for the year fields including molecular basis of sex determination, 2008 [Biotech Research Society (BRSI), BHU, DNA fingerprinting, wildlife conservation, silkworm Varanasi] during 6th BRSI Convention and genome analysis, human genome and ancient DNA International Conference, ETBT-2009, Banaras studies. He is the recipient of so many awards. Some Hindu University, Varanasi important milestones include: • 2009: Life Time Achievement Award [Indian • 1973: Dr S P Basu Memorial Medical – for Analytical Instruments Association, Hyderabad] outstanding contribution in the field of • 2009: CSIR Bhatnagar Fellowship [CSIR, New Cytogenetics [Zoological Society, Calcutta] Delhi] • 1974: INSA Medal for Young Scientists [Indian • 2010: B P Pal Memorial Award [97th Indian National Science Academy, New Delhi] Science Congress] • 1974-76: Commonwealth Scholarship – for He is also an elected fellow of Fellow of Indian Postdoctoral Research in Molecular Biology at Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, MUKHERJEE: A SCIENTOMETRIC PROFILE OF PROF. LALJI SINGH 197 Indian National Science Academy, National Academy Ranjit Kumar Mitra. Sinha and Bhatnagar’s6 study of Agricultural Sciences, National Academy of was on R.C. Sinha, a renowned plant pathologist Medical Sciences and Third World Academy of of Canada. Skalka-Zlatt and Zbikovska-Migon7 Sciences. have studied the presence of Price’s contributions There are many scientific discoveries by Prof. in Polish scientific literature. Rusthon8 describes Singh in the field of genome analysis, DNA finger Hans Eysenck’s productivity, in relation to his printing etc. Bkm-derived probe for DNA fingerprinting scientific achievement. There are many more studies as an alternative mechanism of the determination of on cement and concrete chemist, agricultural scientist; sex is one of the significant contribution among them. a nuclear scientist, chemical engineers and so on9-17. The technique was used to investigate the cases There has been considerable interest in studying like assassination of the late Prime Minister Shri how the eminent scientists collaborate? One of the Rajiv Gandhi and assassination of Punjab Chief results of studies on present-day scientists has shown Minister and others. It was the first time