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2.1 Introduction

Physics is known to have made several contributions to the economy of many nations.

Physics has always served as a bridge between knowledge creation and wealth generation,

particularly in high tech industry. The explosive growth of information technology (IT),

microelectronics and telecommunications has its roots in condensed matter physics, materials

physics, semiconductor physics and fiber optics. The knowledge of physics has been

instrumental in the development of enabling technologies for IT hardware, information

processing, information transmission and storage. The semiconductor industry effectively

utilizes the knowledge of solid state physics, chemical physics, plasma physics and materials

physics for several applications. Physicists continue to apply physics knowledge in other

areas also, such as biology and medicine for exploring the properties of DNA, understanding

the way proteins are configured and making improvements in medical imaging.

Evidently, India commands a strong infrastructural base for physics research. Its R &

D institutions are well equipped to lead India in physics research, in developing physics

based technologies directed at economic development of the country and at influencing the

quality of human life. A large number of universities are engaged in postgraduate teaching

and research and doctoral programme. Gauhati University, Guwahati is one of the premier

university in North-East India engaged in physics research and its contributions to the nation

are quite notable. In the perspectives of citation analysis, it is worthwhile to know scope and

structure of those subfields of physics where maximum research had been carried out.

Citation analysis has been used to find out the literature use by the scholars in

different disciplines and the subfields within it. User studies to ascertain information use

19

patterns of scientists are important in planning and designing of information systems and

services. Gupta (1982)9 has rightly declares that “Citations analyses is becoming an important

research tool for the understanding of science, scientists, scientific contributions and

publications. Citation studies and other bibliometric techniques are being applied for the

management of science, analyzing the structure and direction of science, measuring the utility

of journal and relationships between journals and fields and measuring the performance of

scientist. A vast amount of literature is getting published on such kind of evaluative studies.”

The literature in citation analysis has grown tremendous quantity. A survey of the

research trends necessary to identify if any similar study already exists and also with a view

to get knowledge of the process of application of quantitative analysis or methods.

2.2 Scope of Physics and its Branches:

Physics is the basic science. It is the science of matter, motion and energy. It is an

experimental science, creating theories that are tested against observations. Physical

experiments results in measurements, which are compared with the outcome predicted by

theory. A theory that reliably predicts the results of experiments to which it is applicable. It is

said to be embody a law of physics. However, a law is always subject to modification,

replacement or restriction to a more limited domain of a later experiment makes it necessary.

The ultimate aim of physics is to find a unified set of laws governing matter, motion

and energy at small subatomic distances, at the human scale of everyday life, and out to the

largest distances. Broadly, it is the general scientific analysis, with a goal of understanding

how the universe behaves. The domain of physics developed up to about the turn of the 20th

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century, known as classical physics, can largely account for the motion of macroscopic

objects that move slowly with respect to the speed of light and for such phenomena as heat,

sound, electricity, magnetism and light. The modern developments of relativity and quantum

theory modify those laws in so far as they apply to higher speeds, very massive objects, and

to the tiny elementary constituents of matter, such as electrons, protons and neutrons.

Today, physics is a broad and highly developed subject. Research in the subject is

often divided into four subfields, such as condensed matter physics, atomic, molecular and

optical physics, high energy physics and astronomy and astrophysics. Most physicists also

specialize in either theoretical or experimental research.

An attempt has been made to understand the scope and structure of each subfield of

physics especially, the research areas in Gauhati University in short in the following sections.

2.21 Relativity

The theory of relativity deals with the most fundamental ideas which we use to

describe natural happenings. Those ideas are time, space, mass, motion and gravitation. The

theory of relativity gives new meaning to the old ideas that these words represent.

Historically, the theory developed in two stages. One is the special or restricted relativity

theory. This was published by Albert Einstein in 1905. Another was the general relativity

theory which was put forward by Einstein in 1915.

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Special Relativity

Special relativity is a theory of structure of space and time, does not treat gravitation.

It was introduced in Einstein’s paper “On the electrodynamics of moving bodies.” Special

relativity is based on two postulates which are contradictory in classical mechanics.

(i) The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to one

another (Galileo’s principle of relativity).

(ii) The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative

motion or of the motion of the source of the light.

The theory has many excellent consequences, some of these are:

i) Time dilation:

Moving clocks are measured to tick more slowly than an observer’s “stationary” clock.

ii) Length Contraction

Objects are measured to be shortened in the directions that are moving with respect to the

observer.

iii) Relativity of simultaneity

Two events that appear simultaneous to an observer. A will not be simultaneous to an

observer B if B is moving with respect to A.

Iv} Mass energy equivalence

Energy and mass are equivalent and transmutable E = mc2

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General Relativity

General relativity is a theory of gravitation developed by Einstein in the years 1907 -

1915. The development of general relativity began with the equivalence principle, under

which the states of accelerated motion and being at rest in a gravitational field are physically

identical. The upshot of this is that free fall is inertial motion. In other words, an object is free

fall is falling because that is how objects move when there is no force exerted on them,

instead of this being due the force of gravity as is the case in classical mechanics. According

to the theory of general relativity, the planets chooses the shortest possible path throughout

the four dimensional world which is deformed by the presence of the sun. This may be

compared to the fact that a ship or an airplane crossing the ocean follows the section of a

circle rather than a straight line in order to travel the shortest route between two points. In the

same way, a planet or light ray move along the shortest line in its four dimensional world.

According to Einstein’s theory Mercury moves along an ellipse, but at the same time the

ellipse rotates very slowly in the direction of the planet’s motion. The ellipse will turn about

forty three seconds of an arc per century. As per his theory the universe is expanding and the

far parts of it are moving away from us faster than the light. This does not contradict the

theory of special relativity, since it is space itself that is expanding.

2.22 Solid State Physics

Solid state physics is the study of solids, deals with the physical properties of solids or

rigid materials. These properties includes electrical, dielectric, luminescence, ,magnetism,

mechanical strength and clastic and thermal, properties and their understanding in terms of

fundamental physical laws. Solid state physicists mainly try to understand the properties of

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solids by studying the arrangement and motion of the atoms. The atoms and molecules of

most solids are arranged in a repeated pattern catted crystals. The bulk of solid state physics

theory and research is focused on crystals, largely because the periodicity in atoms in a

crystal and its defining characteristics which facilitates mathematical modeling, and also

because crystalline materials often have electrical, magnetic, optical or mechanical properties

that can be exploited for engineering purposes.

The field of solid state physics has grown up rapidly since about 1946 because of its

importance to industry and its scientific interest. More people are involved in it than in any

other areas of physics. Achievements of solid state physics include the development of

transistors and other devices used in electronic circuits. Solid state physicists have also made

ferrites used in the memory cores of computers, solid lasers, solar batteries, solid luminescent

sources and sensitive detectors for many types of radiation. The computer, communications,

electrical and space industries make use of solid state technology. Quantum theory has given

an understanding of one of the most remarkable properties to be studied in solid state physics,

i.e., superconductivity.

Solid state physics is an expanding field of research with many other challenging

problems today. Some of the problem being studied in solid state physics involves the

interaction of light from intense laser beams with matter. Other areas include the conversion

of electrical energy into light, and improving materials for solid lasers and light sources.

Methods of solid state physics are also being applied to the transfer of energy and electrical

charge in organic systems in biology.

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According to McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology10

“Most of the

scientists who study the physics of liquids identify with solid state physics and the term “

Condensed matter physics” is increasingly replacing “Solid state physics” a division of

physics “(vol. 16, p. 707).. It includes non-crystalline solids such as glass as well as

crystalline.

2.2.3 X-ray Crystallography

In science, X-rays have a wide variety of use. X-ray crystallography is the science of

determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal from the manner in which a beam of

X-rays is scattered from the electrons within the crystal. In X-ray crystallography scientists

have been able to discover a great many things about the way atoms are arranged in crystal

and hence in the molecules of chemical substances. This gains knowledge, for example, the

arrangements of the molecules which are responsible for the fact that rubber stretches, or that

oil is a good lubricant. When a beam of X-rays is shot through a substance, a delicate

measuring device shows how much X radiation is absorbed. Such measuring devices are so

sensitive that they can show the difference in the amount of X-rays absorbed between 99 and

100 sheets of paper. This make it possible for the physicists to know how much of certain

materials may be found in the substance. In this way the amount of ethyl gasoline can be

measured readily.

The key step in X-ray crystallography is the diffraction of X-rays from a crystalline

material. A crystal is a solid in which a particular arrangement of atoms is repeated

indefinitely along three principal directions known as the basis vectors. A wide variety of

materials can form crystals, such as salts, metals, minerals semiconductors as well as various

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inorganic, organic and biological molecules which has made X-ray crystallography

fundamental to many scientific fields. Although it is most informative to diffract X-rays from

a single, large crystal with few defects, such crystals may be difficult to obtain; for simple

materials, it may be possible to reconstruct the atomic structure from the X-ray diffraction of

polycrystalline samples, a technique known as X-ray powder diffraction.

After a crystal has been obtained or grown in the laboratory, it is mounted on a

goniometry and bombarded with X-rays, producing a diffraction pattern of regularly spaced

spots known as reflections. The crystal is gradually rotated and a diffraction pattern is

collected for each distinct orientation of the crystal. These two-dimensional images are

converted into a three- dimensional model of the density of electrons within the crystal using

the mathematical method of Fourier transforms and chemical data on the sample. The

positions of the atomic nuclei are deducted from this electron density and chemical data

producing a model of the atoms within the crystal.

X-ray crystallography is useful in identifying known materials, characterizing

materials and in discerning materials that appear similar by other experiments. X-ray crystals

structures can also account for unusual electronic or elastic properties of a material, shed light

on chemical interactions and processes, or serve as the basis for understanding enzymatic

mechanisms and designing pharmaceuticals against diseases.

2.2.4 Plasma Physics

Plasma in a physics, is a gas that contains roughly equal numbers of positively and

negatively charged particles, usually positive ions and electrons. Plasma is generated by

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ionizing a gas, either by heating it to a high temperature or passing high energy electrons

through it. It is sometimes referred to as the fourth state of matter, distinct from the solid,

liquid and gaseous states.

When energy (e.g., hear) is continuously appeared to a solid, firstly it melts, then it

vapors and finally electrons are removed from one of the neutral gas atoms and molecules

yield a mixture of positively charged ions and negatively charged electron, while overall

neutral charge density is maintained. When a significant portion of the gas has been ionized,

properties will be altered so substantially it little resemblance to solids, liquids and gases

remain. A plasma is unique in the way in which it interacts with itself, with electric and

magnetic fields, and with its environment. So, plasma can be thought of as a collection of

ions, electrons neutral atoms and molecules, and photons in which some atoms are being

ionized simultaneously with other electrons recombining with ions to form neutral particles,

while photons are continuously being produced and absorbed.

It has been estimated that more than 99% of the universe is in the plasma state. On the

earth, plasmas are much less common. Lightning is a familiar natural manifestation and

fluorescent lights are a practical application. Plasma application and studies make use of an

enormous range of plasma temperatures, densities and neutral –pressures. They extend from

plasma processing applications at relatively low temperatures (such as plasma etching of

semiconductor chips at low pressure or plasma cutting torches at atmosphere pressure) to

studies of controlled fusion at very high temperatures.

All of the observed stars, including the sun, consist of plasma, as do interstellar and

interplanetary media and the outer atmospheres of the planets. Although most terrestrial

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matter exists in a solid, liquid or gaseous state, plasma is found in lightning bolts and auroras,

plasmas in gaseous discharge lamps (neon lights), and in the crystal structure of metallic

solids. Plasmas are currently being studied as an affordable source of clean electric power

from thermonuclear fusion reactions. In space and fusion plasmas, plasmas are normally

magnetized while in application plasmas on earth, such as plasma processing, both

magnetized and unmagnetised plasmas are employed. Plasmas may be used for electrical

rockets. In this application a very high exhaust velocity could be created by utilizing

electrical power generated on the space ship to accelerate a plasma. While only small vehicle

accelerations can be produced with engines of this type, they can operate for very long

periods of time..

2.2. 5 Electrons Physics

The name of electronics comes from electrons, the tiny negatively charged particles of

atoms. It deals mainly with the flow of electronics through vacuum tubes, gas filled tubes,

transistors and other devices. According to Encyclopedia Britannica11

, “Electronics, branch

of physics that deals with the emission, behaviour and effects of electrons (as in electron

tubes and transistors) with electronic devices.”(vol. 4, p. 438). Although it is considered to be

a theoretical part of physics but the design and construction of electronic circuits to solve

practical problems is an essential technique in the field of electronic engineering and

computer engineering. This science starts about 1908 with the invention by Dr. Lee De Forest

of the valve. Before 1950, this science was named ‘Radio’ or Radio techniques because that

was its principal application.

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Most of electronics consists of the science of using vacuum tubes, transistors, and

other electronic devices to control small electronic signals. These signals may represent

sounds, such as the radio sounds. They may make up the pictures we see on television. In

computers, the signals may represents numbers, or words used to find information, make

reservations, control machines or processes, or solve problems for businessmen and

scientists. These electronic signals make it possible for electronic devices to aim guided

missiles or to give motion pictures their voice. The electronic microscopes that help scientists

to see tiny germs are electronics.

Electronics deals with flowing electrons. When electrons flow, they form an

electronic current and can be put to work. But, in order to flow, electrons must be free to

move. To understand electronics, we must understand few things, such as (1) the nature of

matter (2) how electrons escape from atoms (3) how electronics makes electrons flow and (4)

how electronics controls an electron flow. Electronics puts these principles for work by

means of (1) vacuum tubes and (2) gas filled tubes. Some of these principles are also

important in solid state physics, such as transistors.

Vacuum Tubes

A vacuum tube is a metal or glass tube from which almost all the air has been

removed so that air atoms and molecules will not interfere with the electron flow. Vacuum

tubes amplify and rectify electric currents in electronic devices, and produce signals by

oscillation. The main types of vacuum tubes include(1) diodes (2) triodes (3) microwave

tubes (4) multielectrode (5) electron beam tubes (6) particle accelerators, and (7)

photoelectric cells.

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Gas Filled Tubes

Gas filled tubes contain small amount of various types of gases. These tubes can

produce light, charge alternating current to direct current and control machinery. The chief

type of gas filled tubes includes (1) neon signs and fluorescent lights (2) thyratrons, and (3)

mercury pool rectifiers.

The role of electronics is very important in the present society. In the home,

electronics makes possible radio, television and telephones. In industry, electronic devices

operate atomic reactors. They regulate the current used in spot welding and control the speed

of lathes and other machines driven by electronic motors. Teletypewriters, facsimile are

electronic communication devices. In space, electronic devices power satellites, communicate

between earth and space craft and perform other complicated jobs. In national defense, radar

can detect missiles flying thousands of miles away. It also aims guns and missiles at planes,

ships and other targets. In science, astronomers use electronic devices to control telescopes

and to photograph stars and measure their light. Biologists use electron microscopes to study

viruses and other small organisms. Electronic computers solve complex scientific problems.

In the field of medicine, electronic devices, such as X-rays, diathermy machine,

electrocardiographs, electro encephalographs and also electronic hearing aids are used to

detect and ailment of different diseases in our body.

2.26 Nuclear Physics

Nuclear physics is the branch of physics that deals with the nucleus of the atom.

Nuclear physicists seek to understand the structure of the nucleus and how the particles

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within it act upon one another. The nuclear domain occupies a central position between the

atomic range of forces and sizes and those of elementary particle physics, characteristically

within the nucleons themselves. As the only system in which all the known natural forces can

be studied simultaneously, it provides a natural laboratory for the testing and extending of

many fundamental symmetric and laws of nature. The supreme achievement of nuclear

physicists has been the development of practical atomic energy.

The history of nuclear physics began with the discovery of the nucleus by Rutherford

in 1911. While the work on radioactivity by Becquerel Pierre and Maire Cure predates this,

an explanation of radioactivity would have to wait for the discovery that the nucleus itself

was composed of smaller constituents, the nucleons. Attempts to split the atom led to the

discovery of nuclear fission.

Nuclear scientists study the nucleus by bombarding it with high speed particles. Some

of these nuclear projectiles merely glance off the nucleus or are scattered. This scattering

allows physicists to gain knowledge about nuclear forces, particularly about the size of the

nucleus. Other particles do not bounce off the nucleus, but penetrate into it. These may

produce nuclear disintegrations or transformations. In a few cases, as in the bombardment of

an isotope of the element uranium (U – 235), the atomic fissions (split in two). Fission is a

process where nuclei are split and a great deal of energy is released or absorbed. Fission has

been used for nuclear reactors and atomic bomb. Bombardment of the nucleus with very high

energy particles has resulted in the artificial production of sub-nuclear particles known as

mesons. These are of special interest to nuclear physicists, because they may explain the

nature of the nuclear forces.

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Fusion, in which nuclei are meshed into larger nuclei, is almost the oppositive of

fission. So far, has only been implemented in the hydrogen bomb. However, since fusion

provides a much greater supply of energy then does fission, Nuclear scientists are working

very hard to create fusion reactors. Two possible designs still being engineered include the

Russian tokamak and laser fusion.

2.2.7 Astrophysics

Astronomy is the branch of astronomy that deals with the physical nature of the

universe, including the physical properties (luminosity, density, temperature) and chemical

composition of celestial objects such as stars, galaxies and the interstellar medium, as well as

their interactions, The Encyclopedia Britannica12

defines it as, “Astrophysics, branch of

astronomy concerned primarily with the properties and structure of cosmic objects, including

the universe as a whole”(vol. 1, p. 657). Astrophysicists use many of the principles and

theories of physics, such as mechanics, electromagnetism, statistical mechanics,

thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, relativity, nuclear and particle physics and atomic and

molecular physics.

Astronomy is very ancient subject and it was long separated from the study of

physics. Aristarchus of Samos(c.310 – c.250 B C.} first put forward the notion that the

motions of the celestial bodies could be explained by assuming that the earth and all the other

planets in the solar system orbited the sun. Unfortunately, in the geocentric world of the time,

Aristarchus heliocentric theory was deemed outlandish and heretical for centuries. Then,

Nicolaus Copernicus revived the heliocentric model in 16th

century. In 1609, Galileo

discovered the four brightest moons of Jupiter and documented their orbits about that planet

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which again contradicted the geocentric dogma. Later, celestical mechanics, the application

of Newtonian gravity and Newton’s laws explain Kepler’s laws of planetary motion were the

first unification of astronomy and physics. At the end of the 19th

century, the element helium

was first discovered in the spectrum of the sun and only later on earth. During the 20th

century, spectroscopy advanced was necessary to understand the astronomical and

experimental observations.

Majority of astrophysicists are dealt with observational astrophysics and theoretical

astrophysics. The majority of astrophysical observations are made using the electromagnetic

spectrum. Radio astronomy studies with a wavelength greater than few millimeters. Radio

waves are usually emitted by cold objects, including interstellar gas and dust clouds. Pulsars

were first detected at microwave frequencies. The study of these waves requires very large

radio telescopes.

Infrared astronomy studies radiation with a wavelength that is too long to be visible,

but shorter than radio waves. Objects colder than stars, such as planets are normally studied

at infrared frequencies.

Optical astronomy is the oldest kind of astronomy. Spectroscopes are the most

common instruments used in it. In this range of telescope, stars are highly visible and many

chemical spectra can be observed to study the chemical composition of stars, galaxies and

nebulae.

Ultraviolet X-ray and gamma ray astronomy study very energetic processes such as

binary pulsars, black-wholes, magnetars, and many others.

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The study of sun has a special place in observational astrophysics. Due to the

tremendous distance of all other stars, the sun can be observed in a kind of detail unparalleled

by any other stars.

Theoretical astrophysics use a wide variety of tools which include analytical models

when the conditions at the surface are known, astrophysicists can calculate how the

temperature, pressure, and density increase towards the centre by applying the known

principles and methods of theoretical physics. As a result of these calculations astrophysicists

know that the main source of energy of all stars comes from nuclear reactions converting

hydrogen nuclei to helium nuclei. Another theoretical investigation is to calculate the history

and future development of the stars. Theorists in astrophysicists endeavor to create theoretical

models and figure out the observational consequences of those models. Topics studied by

theoretical astrophysicists include stellar dynamics and evolution, galaxy formation, large

scale structure of matter in universe, origin of cosmic rays, general relativity and physical

cosmology including string cosmology and astroparticle physics.

Recent development in astrophysics include spectrum photographs mode with high

altitudes rockets and studies of radio noises from outer space.

2.2. 8 Geophysics

Geophysics is the science of the earth and its atmosphere. Historically of geophysics

has been motivated by the theoretical and practical issues. The term of geophysics was

probably first used in Germany where it appeared in scientific writings of the mid-19th

century. The word geophysics was first used by Forbel13

as “geophysics “ in 1834. According

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to the McGraw Hill Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology14

geophysics is as “The study

of the earth and its relations to the rest of the other system using the principles and practices

of physics. Geophysics is considered by some to be a branch of geology by others a branch of

physics. It is distinguished from geology by its use of instruments to make direct and indirect

measurements of the phenomena being studied in contrast to the more direct o9bservatons of

geology, and by its concern with other members of the solar system” (vol. 8, p.73).

Geophysics deals with a wide array of geologic phenomena, including the temperature

distribution of the earth’s interior; the source configuration, and variations of the

geomagnetic field and the large scale features of the terrestrial crust, such as rifts, continental

sutures, and mid oceanic ridges. The research of modern geophysics extends to phenomena of

the outer parts of the earth’s atmosphere, such as the ionospheric dynamo, auroral electro jets,

and magnetopause current system and also to the physical properties of other planets and

their satellites.

Geophysics is divided into various sub-disciplines. These can be grouped as per the

portion of the earth with which is concerned although there is much more overlapping. The

geophysics of the main body of the earth includes such branches as said as earth geophysics,

the study of earth’s interior; seismology, the study of earthquakes; geology, the study of the

earth’s crust and the change it has undergone; and geodesy, the study of the shape and size of

the earth and the measurements of distances between points. Oceanography and hydrology is

concerned with the aqueous parts; metrology with the lower atmosphere; aeronomy with the

upper atmosphere and glaciology; concerns the properties and motion of glaciers. In

geomagnetism and geoelectricity, scientists study the earth’ magnetic field and the electrical

currents that flow around the earth. Gravimetriy is concerned with the pull of gravity.

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Geophysics is an important and extending science. Mineral prospectors use the

principles of geophysics to locate deposits of oil, uranium and other valuable minerals.

Research conducted with geophysical techniques has proved extremely useful in providing

evidence in support of the theory of plate tectonics. Seismographic data for instance, have

demonstrated that the world’s earthquake belts mark the boundaries of the enormous rigid

plates that constitutes the earth’s outer shell, while the finding of paleomagnetic studies have

made it possible to trace the drift of the continents over geologic time.

2.2. 9 Futurology

Futurology is the scientific study of probable and preferable future. Futurology seeks

a systematic and pattern based understanding of past and present, and to determine the

likelihood of future events and trends. It is a newly emerged interdisciplinary subject

studying yesterday’s and today’s change and aggregating and analyzing both lay and

professional strategies and opinions with respect to tomorrow. It includes analyzing the

sources, patterns and causes of change and stability in the attempt to develop foresight and to

map possible futures. Thus futurology seeks a management attitude of constant preparedness.

A scientific probe into future and generation of long term perspectives do help us to get ready

to overcome future crisis, as well as, to grab the future opportunities.

Futurology is defined as the “study of the future”15

]. The term was coined by German

professor Felechthein16

in the mid 1940s, who proposed it as a new branch of knowledge that

would include a new science of probability. Around the world the new field is variously

referred to as futures studies, strategic foresight, futurology, futuristics, futuresthinking,

futuring, futuribles, and prospectiva. Futures studies are the academic fields most commonly

used terms in the English speaking world.

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Ability to decode signals coding from the future helps a nation face any eventualities

squarely. Futurism seeks to develop better ways of thinking about the future and it also

promotes scrutiny of alternative ways and means of dealing with a wide variety pf imaginable

future.

Futurology as a subject of scientific study is of recent origin, although precisely

knows, who really taught the first course in futuristics. It was however, in 1943 that professor

Ossip K., Flechthein of U.S.A. wrote an essay recommending that future be taught as a

subject. He advances in science, probability, modeling and statistics will allow us to continue

to improve our understanding of probable futures, while this area presently remains less well

developed than methods for exploring possible and preferable futures. Alvin Toffler of the

U.S.A. gave the first course in future in New York city in 1968 at the New School for Social

Research.

The Department of Science and Technology (DST) is the model of Ministry of

Futurology in India. In 1975, DST set up a National Council on Science and Technology

(NST) Panel on Futurology in order to encourage and stimulate future consciousness or

concern for future among universities and other institutes of higher learning and Future

Research.

Future practitioners use a wide range of methods and models, many of which come

from other academic disciplines, such as psychology, mathematics, sociology, engineering,

physics, astrophysics, etc. Future studies takes as one of its important attributes the ongoing

effort to analyze images of the future. The efforts includes, collecting quantitative and

37

qualitative data about the possibility, probability and desirability of change. The plurality of

the term ‘Futures’ in futurology denotes the rich variety of images of the future (alternative

futures), including the subset of preferable futures, that can be studied.

Forecasting is the most important aspects of futurology. It involves foresight and

foretelling future events. To forecast is to foresee, plan, estimate and calculate in advance.

Futurologists base their predictions primarily on data from demography and technology and

that is why they are able to predict a hundred technical innovations very likely in the last

third of the present century. The main forecasting techniques are (i) historical (ii) deductive

(iii) statistical; and (iv) joint opinion. Futurologists use a diverse range of forecasting

methods which includes delphi methods, trend exploration, monitoring, technology

forecasting, time series analysis, cross impact analysis, simulation and modeling, scenario

method, social network analysis and method of least squares, etc.

2.3 Importance of Citation Analysis

Everyday new knowledge are added in the ever-growing universe of knowledge. And

if they are not recorded properly they will be lost one day. Unless we relate the new

knowledge to the old, no one is going to accept the newness of the work. A scientific paper

does not stand alone but it is embedded in the literature of the subject. The nature of this

embedding is specified by the use of reference lists. The fact that a document is mentioned in

a reference list indicates that in the author’s mind there is a relationship between a part or the

whole of the cited document and a part or the whole of the citing document. Citation analysis

is that area of bibliometrics which deals with the study of these relationships (Osarch,

38

1996)17

. Those references are commonly known as citations and the basic tool for this kind of

study is called citation index, which is an ordered and structured list of cited documents.

In recent years, citation analysis has emerged as a useful technique for devising the

trends in scientific research. Citation analysis uses bibliographic references or footnotes to

identify what material is related to a particular topic and is worth reading. In addition to that

it helps in studying how a scientist interacts with his colleagues. Two assumptions can be

made when scientist cite their work too often. These are: (a) The papers selected for citation

are those which have been important to a research activity (b) Citations are indicative of

influence via the literature, in other words, independent authors working on the same

problems cite the same material.

Why do authors cite? Why do scientists quote precedence? There may be one or more

reasons for an author to cite an authority. Weinstock (1971}18

has identified some of the

major reasons of authors behind using references, as listed below:

1. Paying homage to pioneers;

2. Giving credit for related work;

3. Identifying methodology, equipments, etc.;

4. Providing background reading;

5. Correcting ones own work;

6. Correcting the work of others;

7. Criticising previous work;

8. Substantiating claims;

9. Alerting researchers to forthcoming work;

39

10 Providing leads to poorly disseminated, poorly

indexed, or united work;

11. Authenticating data and classes and fact physical constant, etc.;

12. identifying the original publications in which an idea or concept was

discussed;

13. Disclaiming work or ideas of others;

14. Disputing priority claims of others; and

15. Identifying the original publications or other works describing an

eponymic concepts or terms.

Britain and Line (1972)19

discussed the importance of citation as:

1. Identification of key documents and creation of core lists of journals;

2. Study of the coverage of primary journals and other materials in

secondary services;

3. Clustering of documents according to common references and citations;

4. Study of attributes of literature including growth rate, obsolescence,

citation practices;

5. Study of the structure of the scientific literature according to language,

country of origin, age, subject, form, authorship ar any combination of

these attributes; and

6. Study of the historical and sociological aspects of scholarly

communication in science and technology.

40

The citation techniques use citations in scholarly works to establish links. Many different

links can be established such as links between authors, between fields, between scholarly

works, or even between countries. Citations both from and to a certain document may be

studied. One very common use of citation analysis is to determine the impact of single author

on a given field by counting the number of times the author has been cited by others.

Aggregates of citations are commonly used in evaluation studies as indicators for the impact

of publications, as one of the measures of the ‘quality of research groups or even of

individual researchers. Co-citation maps of scientific maps of scientific specialties’ (Brooks,

1985, p.223)20

and also increasingly citation patterns among journals are used to describe the

development of disciplines and specialties, and to identify emerging areas of scientific

enquiry (Brooks, 1986)21.

Citations are indicators of literature use. According to Baughman (1974)22

citation

study is a systematic enquiry into the structural properties of the literature of the subject. He

explains that the structure of literature is a quality, and therefore it is a distinct characteristic.

It is not a given one; rather it is a ‘ continuing processes within the components that go up to

make a literature, this in turn provides the librarian a practical guide to action when it comes

to the matter of selecting materials for his library. Citations are also used successfully as

reading list and in preparation of bibliographies. This value of citations can well be observed

through Science Citation Index, Social Science Citation Index, and Art and Humanities

Citation Index.

The citation approach has some advantage over the user studies. It helps to determine

the usefulness of the literature of a subject according to its age. For instance, the one general

finding of most citation studies is that scientific writing makes use of more recent and nascent

41

information whereas historical writings make use of comparatively older information. This is

a sort of guidelines to the librarian in the formulation of a separate acquisition policy for each

subject. Secondly, Citation approach is independent of any particular collection. Hence, its

findings are universally applicable to all libraries and information centres.

2.4 Citation Analysis: a Literature Review

The literature in citation studies are extensive in nature, hence a review of the

importance works are only attempted in this work. Quite a large number of studies have been

reported from India as well as from the west in the field of science and technology than in

social sciences and humanities. The first user study of any significance based on a more

systematic citation count, was by Gross and Gross23

in 1927. The study was made of the

references in one year’s issues of volume of the year 1926 of the journal of the American

Chemical Society to aid selection of periodicals in the field of chemistry. It just attempt to

rank the journals in chemistry on the basis of numerical counting. The study remains

important for its historical significance that later became that basis and a methodological

direction to the Bradford’s law of Scattering as per the evidence available, it appears that the

bibliometric studies in India started with the publication of an article by Dutta and

Rajagopalan24

in 1958. However it may be noted here that the term ‘Librametry’ was coined

by Ranganathan25

in 1948 and the term was used more or less in the same sense of

bibliometrics in India for quite some time. But it drew least attention of LIS scientists outside

India. Bibliometric studies in India took a farm root in 1963 when a seminar was organized

by DRTC on Documentation Periodicals and quite a few papers were presented in the

conference including foreign ones.

42

2.4.1 Bradsford’s Law

Bradford’s Law of Scattering describes how the literature on a particular subject is

scattered or distributed in the journals. It is based upon an observation that journal articles in

any specific topic show a particular pattern that a fairly large number of articles are

concentrated in a few journal titles while a large number of journals contribute only one or

two articles each.

There are numerous studies that have applied Bradford’s Law to various collection

management problems which include tests of collection adequacy, journal acquisition, and

retention policies, evaluation of indexing and abstracting services, and cost benefit

considerations of additional coverage. Some of the important reviews of literature are

mentioned here.

Lockett (1989)26

examined critically the growth of research associated with the

Bradford distribution through a detailed discussion on the significant papers published

between 1934 – 1987. The review addresses three major concerns of the literature (a )

appropriate formulation of Bradford’s Law (b) parameters of the Bradford distribution,

and,(c) relationship of the Bradford distribution to other distributions

Wooster (1970)27

made a frequency curve on 6-550 journals which published 5500

articles in aerospace research. He reported that first 10 journals published 35% of the articles;

the second 10 brought the total to 45 %, the third 10 to 50 %. The crossover was at 70

journals and 70 %, with perhaps 400 of the journals running from 5 to 1 articles each.

43

Stevens (1953)28

in his paper reported that in chemistry 2 journals were needed to

cover 25% , 7 to cover 50 % and 24 to cover 75% of the total 247 journals covering 3633

citations

As a possible explanation to the variations of the ranks of the cited journals, Garvey

(1979)29

points out that authors would seek to publish their articles in certain journals and not

in others. Egghe (1990)30

has given “a note on different Bradford multipliers” showing that

the multiplier k that appears in the law of Bradford is neither the production of articles per

author nor the average number in many cases. Pontigo and Lancaster (1986)31

have

investigated on “Qualitative aspects of the Bradford distribution” by using two measures of

quality; rate of citation and expert judgment.

Bookstein (1986)32

in his study “Towards multidisciplinary Bradford Law” discusses

the implications for Bradford’s law of the multidisciplinary character of journals and defines

a simple model that indicates the evolution of journals as a competition among subjects for

space. Basu (1992)33

discussed about “Hierarchical distributions and Bradford’s Law”. While

the distribution obtained reproduces the general shape of a cumulative frequency log-rank

graph of publication data, to ensure good fit to data, parameter has to be introduced that may

be considered to incorporate the effects of possible deviation from randomness and is

suggested as an indirect measure of concentration.

Wagner-Dobber (1996)34

has discussed about “Two components of a casual

explanation of Bradford’s Law”. In his study instead of Bradford’s original rank size

distribution he has taken equivalent but more general Pareto distribution while analyzing

periodicals in 20th

century psychology and mathematical logic and testing the hypothesis that

hierarchies of subjects within periodicals correspond to the reception process, defined as the

structure of interests of their readers. Ravichandra Rao (1998)35

has discussed “An analysis of

44

Bradford multipliers”. to identify a suitable model to explain the law of scattering. He

reported that log normal model fits much better than many other models.

Shukla, Saksena and Riswadkar (2001)36

have made “Application of Bradford’s and

Lotka’s distribution to bio-energy literature: a case study based on ten abstracting services”.

They reported that literature related to bio-energy conforms to Bradford’s law of scattering.

They also revealed that the new model developed in their study fits the data very

satisfactorily-r value ranged from 0.952 to 0.998 (for papers from journal titles) and 0.989 to

0.998 (for papers from conference proceedings). The value of p (multiplication factor) for

bio-energy literature ranged from 2.19 to 4.09 (except for IEA and ISA) for articles from

journal titles and from 2.02 to 4.59 for papers from conference titles.

2.4.2 Bibliographic Form

The significance of any publication lies in its representation of particular information

need. The preference of an intellectual form by the users of a certain discipline for publishing

their contributions helps in deciding the policies regarding the indicators to be used in

evaluating the productivity of the scientists. In scientific research, journals tend to be most

preferred form, followed by books. In areas, which involve policy matters and government

activities, the preferred form is reprints. In short, a variety of forms do exists and there are

overlapping in these forms In this regards, some of the important review works in different

disciplines are given below.

Stevens (1953)37

was the first to undertake a comparative study of the materials cited

in Ph. D. dissertations. A total of 6993 citations received from a sample set of 90 theses, 50

on science and 40 on humanities formed the total data. The analysis revealed heavy use of

journal articles in scientific writing and books in humanities; a large number of citations are

used in humanities than in science. Stevens did not stop with this. He undertook the very

45

laborious task of checking the title against the holdings of the libraries of the respective

universities that awarded the degrees. He found that the dissertation on history cited a large

number of titles which were not in the library. From these findings he made the conclusion

that scholar in humanities have to search and make use of materials available in libraries

other than their own.

Begum and Sami (1986)38

studied the trends in Indian agriculture research with the

help of entries in Indian Science Abstract (1970 – 78, 1980 – 80). Analysis of literature

reveals that journal articles are most highly available form of literature accounting for 96.39

percent, followed by the standard, with 1.39 percent and conference literature with 1.1

percent.

Doraswamy (2006)39

made “Analysis of citations cited in Ph. D. theses in botany”. He

analysed a total of 4050 citations from theses were submitted to the Nagarjuna University,

Guntur, Andhra Pradesh during the year 2000 – 2004. The study revealed that journal articles

are the most preferred source of information for the research scholars in botany accounting

for 71.80 percent, followed by books with 17.65 percent of total citations.

A study on the research publications of an Indian marine fisheries research laboratory

(Kabir, 198)40

shows that over 80% of their contributions are in the serials. The proceedings

of conferences, seminars, workshops, etc. are noticed to the second choice (16.5%) of the

scientists of the institute. Contrary to this most common picture are the contributions of the

Philippines based International Centre for Living Aquatic Resources Management

(ICLARM) (Mclean, 1990)41

The number of contributions of ICLARM in the form of report

and semi-technical literature amount to over 57% contributions in the proceedings of the

conferences and chapters in books are the second choice of the scientists of ICLARM (29%).

The contributions to the serial literature are only 13.5% and thus the last choice. In

46

engineering sciences also the authors have been noticed to be the largely publishing their

findings in the non-serial literature. In some subjects, even the technology conference

proceedings are known to have a better impact than any serial in that field (Tapaswi, 1991)42.

Deshpande (1997)43

made citation study of dissertations in library and information

science submitted to Nagpur University, India during the period 1990 – 94. The study

reported that the majority of citations were from journals (68.74%), followed by books

(16.47%). Similarly, the study of Lokhanda (2007)44

also reveals that journals are the most

preferred source of information used by the researchers in the field of library and information

science with 45.16 percent of the total citations. Books are the second highest group

(42.11%), followed by website, reports, seminars, conferences and newspapers with very low

percentages.

Walcott.s (1981)45

national study of randomly selected geoscience dissertations

revealed that 79.6% of the citations were from serials. With nearly 97% of the serials coming

from English language publications, she suggested that geoscience librarians cut back on

purchasing foreign language publications. Potential serial reductions were the impetus for

Walcott’s (1994)46

citation analysis of graduate students’ biology theses and dissertations for

the years 1989 – 1992. She found that they cited approximately 95% serials and only 5%

books.

A fewer studies have examined chemistry dissertations to ascertain materials most

heavily used. An evaluation of the citation analyses literature in science and engineering

shows that most studies focus on journal or monograph use. Gooden (2001)47

examined 30

dissertations accepted in the Department of Chemistry at the Ohio state University between

1996 – 2000 to determine material use. His study revealed that journal articles were cited

47

more frequently than monographs. 85.8% of the total 3,704 citations were journal articles and

only 8.4% of the citations were monographs.

Barooah and Sharma (1999)48

analysed 4,253 citations collected from 19 doctoral

dissertations submitted to various universities by S & T workers working in the area of

organic chemistry during 1977 to 1997 to determine use pattern of literature. They observed

that out of 4,253, major citations (85.42%) were from journal literature. Only 8.3% citations

of the total citations were from books comes in the next.

Youngen (2001)49

examined electronics preprints in the astronomy and astrophysics

literature. For scientists in those fields he argues “that preprints have become a much more

common form of scientific information exchange”. Youngen concluded that electronic

preprints were cited in the most influential astronomy and astrophysics journals and were an

important resource for primary research information.

Bandyopadhyay (2003)50

has investigated ninety two doctoral dissertations submitted

to the University of Burdwan from 1981 to 1990 by the scholars of five different disciplines,

namely, mathematics, physics, mechanical engineering, political science and philosophy

analyzing a total of 11,228 references. In his study he reported that periodicals are used

maximum 991.96%) and books are used the lowest (4.02%) in nuclear physics.

Dutta and Sen. (2000)51

analysed 743 citations appended to 41 research articles

published in the January to April 2000 issues of Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics.

They have reported that journal articles were the most predominant form of literature in

physics, accounting for 83% of the total citations and monographs occupy the second position

accounting for more than 10 percent of the literature.

48

2.4.3 Journal Ranking and Core Journals

Journal ranking assists to journal selection by libraries. Citation analysis helps to

produce lists of core journals according to the number of citations received, are the most

likely best buys. Ranking of journals could also aids in evaluating the importance of journals

indicating their popularity among authors for writing their articles. It gives the evidence of

authors’ preferences of one journal over others showing its usefulness in their fields of

interest. Published literature in journal ranking are quite extensive covering a large number of

ranking studies in scientific disciplines and comparatively lesser number in social science

disciplines and humanities. Some important review works with their broad subject fields

reported by some earlier authors are as follows:

Brown (1956)52

employed the citation technique for the analysis of 5430 citations

from six different physiology journals to determine the most frequently cited physiology

serials. The most significant pre “Science Citation Index” study is that reported by brown

which is described as an “attempt to ascertain what conclusions and interference can be

drawn from study of lists of most frequently cited serials in various fields of science and what

results can be obtained from such a study will make the use of libraries more

effective”(p.160).

It is fully realized that while the count of citations presents factual data the

interpretation and inference drawn from such data are necessarily subjective and it is said that

the paper with maximum citations of current periodicals will be more authentic than with

more than with less, and it is quite obvious in science literature than in social science and

humanities.

Citation analysis technique was employed by Sengupta (1971)53

in preparing the

ranking list of periodicals in different disciplines. Sengupta has observed that equal

49

weightage is not to be given to both old periodicals and newly established periodicals, while

ranking the periodicals in terms of frequency of citations received by them. Newly

established periodicals received lesser number of citations because they have been in

existence for lesser number of years compared to older journals. Hence, correction needs to

be made to give more weight to newly established journals.

To correct, for this fact, he has adopted a formula for weighting the enumerated

citations as follows.

C1 = C 19/n X 10/n1

where C1 is the corrected citation

C is the enumerated citation

n is the number of years which the journal is in existence; and

n1 is the number of years for which the journal had been in existence

during the period of which source journal were counted.

Gunjal and Naidu (1985)54

investigated the use of journals in an agricultural library.

The use of journals has been analysed through citations available in theses during 1969 –

1984. In all 3,875 citations were collected from 147 theses. Out of the total citations, the 55%

were found to be journal citations. This comprised of 2,130 citations taken from 161 journals.

The journals cited less than ten times have been ignored from the frequency count. The most

frequently cited journals were just 27 and this set of journals provided 86% citations. Out of

these 27, 20 journals are being published from India. This 27 core journals can be considered

for acquisition in the concerned library.

50

Mahapatra [(1983)55

analysed 17,802 journal citations in botany from 1950 – 1980

and prepared a ranked list. Lal and Panda (1996)5

created a ranked list of the 100 most

frequently cited core periodicals in plant pathology after examining 20 dissertations from the

Department of Plant Pathology at Rajendra Agricultural University. Edwards (1999)57

determined which journal titles were used by polymer science and polymer engineering

graduate students. Her use of citation analysis along with shelving counts enabled her to

make merited cancellation choices. Twenty journal titles were needed to satisfy 61% of the

journal citations in this study. Accordingly only 12 titles were needed to cover 50% of the

journal citations.

Waugh and Ruppel (2004)58

reviewed the literature in detail with regards to the use of

citation analysis to determine the core journals in various fields, such as psychology,

women’s studies and work force education. They also introduced a weighting formula that

not only takes into account the total number of times each journal title is cited but also the

percentage of dissertations in which it is cited. In other words, a journal title that is cited most

often by the greatest number of dissertations gets ranked higher in the list.

Bandyopadhyay and Nandi (2001)59

reported results of a citation analysis study of

nine doctoral dissertations in political science submitted to the Burdwan University (West

Bengal ) from 1991 – 1995 and concludes that the most favoured ( 56.2 percent ) of literature

is the book, followed by periodicals (20.2 percent}. Out of the total, 29 periodicals are used

to satisfy 80 percent of periodical requirements and seven periodicals satisfy 50 percent of

such requirements. The most highly ranked periodical was ‘Economic and Political Weekly’

covering over 20 percent of periodical requirements.

Gobbur, Kamble and Jange (2003)60

have made citation analysis of 2198 citations

from 10 Ph. D. theses of English subject submitted to Gulbarga University, Gulbarga during

51

1980 – 1995 and prepared a ranked list of journals in the concerned subject. They reported

that out of the total, six periodicals are used to satisfy 50 percent of periodical requirements.

The most highly ranked periodical was ‘Journal of Indian Writing in English’ with 13

citations, covering the percentage 3.95.

Kherde (2003)61

investigated ´Core journals in the field of library and information

science “ where he analyses the citations appended to articles that appeared in popular Indian

library and information science journals during the period 1996 and 2001. His study revealed

that ‘Annals of Library Science and Documentation’ ( Annals of Library and Information

Studies ) secured top position in the rank list receiving 114 citations among Indian journals

while ‘College and Research Libraries’ was the most popular among foreign journals.

Ranking of chemistry periodicals has been studied by Singh (1974}62

from the Indian

scientists’ point of view basing the citations in six issues of Indian Journal of Chemistry vol.

8 (1970}. Mohinder Singh (1978)63

has shown how the ranking of chemistry periodicals has

undergone change during 1967 and 1976. A citation analysis of 22 Ph. D. theses in chemistry

submitted to Mangolore University, India was examined by Mubeen (1996)64

to study the

information use pattern of researchers. The study identified 60 core periodicals, out of a total

418, referred to by researchers. The application of Bradford’s Law of Scattering reveals an

exponential trend and the Bradford multiplier is seen to observe a geometric series pattern

Inhaber (1974)65

made analysis of close to a million citations using the SCI data bank

for all scientific disciplines. Physical Review was at the top of the list, but the order changed

when he adjusted for Impact and Immediacy.

52

Inhaber’s article “stimulated” Garfield (1974)66

to study what are the journals most

cited by physics journals, where in we observed that physicists cite different physics journals

than other people. The lists of top 50 journals most cited by 188 physics journals were given.

Vlachy (1986)67

briefly reviewed physics related quantitative studies in

“Scientometric analysis in physics – where we stand”.

Karanjai and Mujoo-Munshi (1987)68

has made identification of core journals in

science and technology based on INSDOC’s document delivery demand, part 1 of which has

dealt with physics. Document copy requests during 1980-85 were analysed and it was found

that 50 journals could satisfy 76.66% of residual requests in physics. 113 identified journals

could satisfy a majority of residual requests.

Unzun, Menard and Oezel (1993)69

have studied the “citation status of Turkish

physics publications in foreign journals” and found that on the average, papers from Turkey

that appeared in the American and European journals are cited at rates higher than others.

Consequently, the study is based on SCI data that give more coverage to the stated countries.

More recently, Bandyopadhyay (2003)70

in his doctoral thesis entitled “Bibliometric

analysis of doctoral dissertations of the University of Burdwan: a study of information flow

in some selective disciplines”, made analysis of rank journal of physics and shown that 20

journals can fulfill the 80% of total document requirements in Nuclear Physics.

2.4.4 Authorship Studies

The architect of an intellectual and artistic work is recognized as an author. Joint

authors means showing responsibility for the thought content of the work. Multiple

authorship indicates development of a subject and a tendency of inter institutional and inter

53

disciplinary study. Some of the relevant studies on collaborative research in different subjects

are mentioned here.

Price (1963)71

reported first the trend of multiple authorship after studying the data

from Chemical Abstracts for the period 1910 to 1960. The proportion of two authored papers

had reached about 40% of the total output, three authored papers made up about 15% and

four authored papers 5 to 10%. The proportion of three authored papers showed rapid growth

compared to two authored papers and likewise the four authored papers increased faster than

three authors. Price has pointed out that there has been a consistent trend towards increased

collaboration.

Balog (1979-80)72

has studied the multiple authorship and author collaboration in

agricultural publications based on the paper published in New Zealand Journal of

Agricultural Research from 1958 – 1978. The result of the study reveals that the proportion of

single authored papers declined from 65.6 percent to 34.3 percent, two authored papers

increased from 28.1 percent to 41.4 percent and three authored papers from 42 percent to 16.2

percent with an increase in number of authors per paper from 1.43 to 1.99 as a function of

time.

Maheshwarappa and Mathias (1987)73

have investigated the multiple authorship,

authorship patterns and research collaboration in biological sciences as a whole and in

different disciplines of applied sciences in India during 1965 – 83. The data has been

collected from the Indian Science Abstract of 1965, 1970, 1975, 1980 and 1983 as sample

years. The investigation revealed that the proportion of single authored papers declined from

36.07 percent in 1965 to 14.31 percent in 1983 while multiple authorship showed increasing

trend from 63.3 percent to 85.69 percent with an increase in average number of authors per

paper from 1.92 to 2.25. The variation in the degree of collaboration and the average number

54

of authors per paper was found in different disciplines, thus indicating the variation in the

extent of collaboration in biology, botany and zoology.

Khaiser and Rajendra (1990)74

investigated “Research collaboration in zoological

sciences” analyzing 7854 items published during 1975 – 84. The study reported that 67.02%

of the literature was by multiple authors.

Karisiddappa, Maheshwarappa and Shirol (1990}75

studied “Authorship pattern and

collaborative research in psychology” based on Psychological Abstract for the year 1988,

where 39.43% of the literature accounted for single authorship and the degree of

collaboration in psychology was 0.60.

Sen (1997)76

studied article with ten or more authorship. The study showed that 5

percent of the papers published in proceedings of the National Academy of Science, New

York, February – July 1996 were mega authored.

Qin (1995)77

has studied the average number of collaborators per author in

biotechnology. He made “Collaboration and publication productivity: a experiment with a

new variable in Lotka’s Law”. The overall average number of authors per paper was 2.69.

Joshi and Maheshwarappa (1994)78

studied the multiple authorship trends in different

subjects of science and technology. The study revealed that in mathematics 94% of the papers

were single authored in 1940, 79% in 1960 and 44.23% in 1983.

Dutta and Sen (2000)79

have studied “Indian Journal of Pure and Applied Physics – an

analysis of citation pattern”. The study indicates that single authored contributions were

around 25%, two and three authored contributions account for around 58%, and three or more

55

than authors around 16%. The study revealed that around 74% of the contributions were the

result of team work.

Bandyopadhyay (2001)80

studied “Authorship pattern in different disciplines”

analyzing 92 doctoral theses submitted to the Department of Mathematics, Physics,

Mechanical engineering, Philosophy and Political science, University of Burdwan, India from

1981 to 1990. The study showed that multiple authored articles were found maximum in

physics(62.24%0, 36.6% of the articles in mechanical engineering, 36.3% of the articles in

mathematics, 12.3% of the articles in philosophy and only 3.85% of the articles in political

science were multiple authored. It also revealed that multiple authorship trend has increased

steadily through decades (1950 – 1990) in all the branches of physics and mathematics.

2.4.5 Age and Obsolescence Studies

The study of age of literature based on citations has appeared in the literature since

long. The synchronous studies go back to 1927 by Gross and Gross (1927)81

in chemistry and

continued by different authors in various disciplines of sciences, humanities, social sciences

and technology. Burton and Kebler (1960}82

who first introduced the term half-life in the

literature studies in 1960. Premier works like that of Brooke’s (1970)83

reported that if growth

rates of output of literature and number of contributors are equal than the obsolescence rate

remains constant. Kent’s (1987)84

study of obsolescence explains about the measures for

determining the extent to which library materials are used and determine the storage of

discarding points. Egghe and Rousseau (2000)85

explained the notions aging, obsolescence,

impact, utilization and their relations. Jagannath (1999)86

discussed in her paper how reading

materials have become obsolete over the years due to changes in thought content, language,

style of presentation and usage of new terminologies and deterioration in physical body or

56

document carrier. Pichappan and Sangaranachiyar (1996)87

have emphasised that it is

necessary to include eponyms, anonyms and footnotes in age studies.

Similar studies were also conducted by many workers on different subjects. Marton

(1985)88

in his article “Obsolescence or immediacy? Evidence supporting Price’s

hypothesis”. has analysed the time distribution of citations given by five leading journals in

each of seven life science disciplines and reported that the decrease in the frequency of

citations is faster in the early years i.e., 5 – 10 years than later. The results are discussed as

evidence in supporting price’s immediacy factor. Sangam (1989)89

has studied the

“Obsolescence of literature in economics” analysing 1840 references from ten doctoral theses

accepted during 1964 – 1982 by Karnataka University. The half-life of cited journals and

books are reported as 9.47 and 15.7 years respectively.

Verma and Verma (1993)90

have analysed a “Study of age distribution of journal

citation in the American Economic Review” where journal citations were accounted for

58.01%. Median age was found to be six years. They reported that the first two age groups 0

– 4 and 4 – 9 were accounted for 68.4% of the total number of citations.

Musib (1987)91

has made “Age of literature studies in philosophy”. He analysed

34,296 references and footnotes collecting from the articles published in eight journals in the

fiels of philosophy from 1970 – 80. The study revealed that 50% of journal citations were

slightly over 0 – 5 years and those of book citations were slightly over 0 – 9 years.

Biradar and Sampath Kumar (2003)92

in their study examined in the light of

obsolescence of literature, annual aging factor, mean life and utility factor of periodicals in

the field of chemistry. The average half-life of chemical literature was found to be 11.8 years.

The average annual aging factor of literature was found to be 0.9754. Mujoo-Munshi,

57

Karanjai and Sen (1991)93

have made “Citation behaviour of chemical scientists: a case

study”. The study shown that Indian authors generally cite older references where as

American authors quote more recent literature irrespective of their place of work.

Shaw (1986)94

has made “Impact, subfields and aging of recently cited physics

monographs” analysing the distribution by subject and date of publication of approximately

1800 monographs cited in a survey of information sources in physics. The half-life of

literature was found to be 5.8 ≠ 0.5 years.

Gupta (1990)95

has made a synchronous citation study of 15 leading physics journals

to determine the obsolescence of Physical Review articles with age. The study shown that the

density of citation to Physical Review has decreased exponentially with a half-life of 4.9

years.

Pillai and Sudhier {2007}96

have made “Citations in the physics doctoral

dissertations: an obsolescence study”. The study reported that the half-life of journals was

found to be 10 years and 15 years for books. The mean year of journal citations were

calculated as 14.19 years and for books 17.79 years.