CSIR-Funded Research in India: Insights from Bibliometric and Altmetric Analysis

Abstract

Purpose

This study investigated the scholarly productivity, citation impact, and Altmetric score of the research funded by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India, over the past decade (2014-2023). The purpose was to assess and understand the influence of CSIR-funded research among academia and its engagement on social media.

Methodology

Bibliographic and citation data of 70,501 CSIR-funded publications published during 2014-2023

were extracted from the Web of Science using the authors’ country affiliation (India) and funding agency - CSIR, India. Altmetric Explorer was used to retrieve Altmetric data. The citation and Altmetric data were then tabulated using Microsoft Excel and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS).

Findings and Suggestions

CSIR-funded research is being disseminated predominantly in the form of articles (91.97%). This approach is validated by the fact that 87% of total citations have been garnered by articles, highlighting the significant impact of publishing in standard journal formats.

The yearly average relative growth rate of CSIR-funded research during the last decade stands at 0.28, indicating a stable and gradual increase in research output. On the other hand, the citations of these publications have received an annual average of 1.35 lakh citations, with a 0.18 yearly average relative growth rate. To better understand the citation trends, citation data were divided into two five-year block periods: 2014-2018 and 2019-2023. During the first block period, the mean relative growth rate for citations was 0.34, while it decreased to 0.06 during the second. This trend highlights the most important factor, i.e., ‘Time’ associated with citation accumulation. The social engagement of CSIR-funded research was considerably high across platforms. X (formerly Twitter) emerged as the leading platform, accounting for 1.43 lakh mentions, followed by News mentions (9290), Patent mentions (4154), and 4019 Facebook interactions. Further, over 11 lakh Mendeley reads indicated substantial scholarly influence of the CSIR-funded research. As CSIR conducts cutting-edge research, leveraging Altmetrics is an effective way to reach a broader audience and enhance visibility. Only 24% of research funded by CSIR is published on open-access platforms, receiving an average of 22.46 citations per paper. There is an urgent need for stricter implementation of the open-access mandate to include all CSIR-funded research, regardless of author affiliation, to enhance its visibility and impact. Chemistry dominates in CSIR-funded research, comprising 43% of total publications. However, there is a need to adopt refined criteria for funding allocation to ensure a more balanced distribution across diverse scientific disciplines.