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DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
ika.2021.07.01.006
Research Article
Volume-9 | Issue-4 | Oct-Dec-2023|
Mapping of Indian Astrophysics Research: A Scientometric
Analysis of Research Output During 2013-2022
Gyandhriti Khargharia1, Shyam Nath Yadav2*
1,2 Department of Library and Information Science, University of Delhi
*Corresponding Author Email: [email protected]
Received: 18th October, 2023 Accepted: 26th October, 2023, Published: 02nd November, 2023
ABSTRACT: The study has been conducted to analyze the research output of Astrophysics literature for a period of ten
years i.e., from 2013- 2022 as reflected in the database of Web of Science. The year wise productivity, authorship pattern,
most trending research topics, citation impact of most productive journals etc. are evaluated. The most productive year is
2022 with 596 publications (14.62%) and the least productive year is 2013 with 243 publications (5.96%). It has gained
105771 citations for the total of 4078 publications. Multi- authorship or more than ten authored contributions (863
publications, 21.16%) are found highest followed by three and two authorships with 755 publications (18.51%) and 700
publications (17.17%) respectively. The highest impactful journal is found as Astronomy and Astrophysics publish by
EDP Sciences having the maximum value of h-index (71), g- index (210), m-index (6.45), also the maximum Citations
(48023). The study also reveals that the cosmological observations based on Planck measurements is one of the most
trending research topics in the present era in Astrophysics. The most prolific author’s keywords found are galaxies: active,
cosmology: observations and methods: data analysis with total link strength of 626, 389 and 350 respectively.
KEYWORDS: Scientometrics, Research productivity, Astrophysics, Authorship Pattern, Co-occurrence, Bibliographic
Coupling, Citation Impact, India
1. INTRODUCTION
Astrophysics is the branch of Astronomy, the oldest
scientific discipline of mankind which better helps
understanding the subject of Physics at extreme scales.
The main motive of Astrophysics is to understand the
working principle of the universe, exploring its
origination and evolution and also searching for the
possibility of life hood in other different planets of the
universe. It employs different concepts, methods,
principles of Physics and Chemistry in order to
comprehend the lifespan, death, birth and nature of
galaxies, planets, nebulae, different celestial bodies of
space. Scientometric study is the mathematical and
statistical analysis to evaluate a research literature. It
basically deals with quantifying and analyzing science
& technology related aspects evaluating overall research
performance of an author, journal, organization or
institution, database etc. It is utilized to identify
different indicators such as productivity, publication
pattern, authorship pattern and collaborative research,
author affiliation, citations and nature of the subject area
over the timespan considered. The scientometric
analysis is a technique for providing new insight into
the research area of study which eventually helps in
formulating policy making for deriving long term
economic and social benefits. The study, therefore has
been undertaken to understand the present scenario of
Indian Astrophysics research performance as seen
through Web of Science (WoS) database. (Leydesdorff
and Milojevis 322-327)
VEETHIKA-An International
Interdisciplinary Research Journal
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URL: https://veethika.qtanalytics.in
2
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
ika.2021.07.01.006
2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
A lot of scientometric studies have been carried out so
far in the evaluation of scientific literature in different
subject fields. A sufficient range of publications have
been reviewed for the present study.
Kenchakaller and Biradar has conducted a
scientometric study on 3818 Indian publications of
Black Holes reflected from WoS database. A timespan
of 15 years (2008-2022) is taken into consideration. The
study reveals that 97.59% articles contribute to literature
among all the document types. Ajith Parameshwaran as
the most productive author from the Bangalore
International Center for theoretical science is found to
publish 119 papers (32,405 citations, 61 h-index).
Similarly, the most productive journal is Physical
Review contributing 604 publications and receiving
16,068 citations. The keyword “Black Holes” occurs
most frequently with 435 number of occurrences. India
has got 8th position out of the 80 countries involve in the
total output to the world’s literature. Astronomy and
Astrophysics is the related research area contributing
2423 publications with 47.45% sharing. (1- 6)
Mohan and Kumbar have applied different
scientometric techniques to evaluate research
performance in Steller and Galactic Astrophysics for a
twenty years period. An exponential growth of the
literature has been observed in the given period. In the
ranked list of institutional contributors, TIFR, Mumbai
has got top position contributing 26.03 percent of total
output, whereas R. Srianand has topped in the ranking
of authors contributing 143 papers. The study indicates
a vast amount of collaborative research and India is
found mostly to collaborate with USA. The most
preferred journal has contributed a percentage of 32.95
to the total publications. A significant impact can be
observed in the value of h-index i.e., 115. The highest
altmetric score is received as 2411. (82-103)
Satish has assessed research outcome of Astronomy and
Astrophysics by using various scientometric tools and
techniques. A total of 20,311 data are retrieved from
WoS for the time length 1988-2017. A 5% of yearly
growth of Astronomy and Astrophysics publications has
been observed on average. Physical Review ‘D’ is
found as the most productive journal whereas TIFR,
Mumbai and Banerjee S. of TIFR are the most prolific
institute and author respectively. Research collaboration
is preferred by the authors in this field. The study
concludes that although the research in Astronomy and
Astrophysics are growing but in a steady way, emphasis
is needed for quality research to publish in high impact
journals. (1-20)
A gradual growth in the productivity is found when
Vinay et al. has made an attempt to quantify 2723
publications on Astrobiology. Analyzing the collected
data on Web of Science published up to 2021 reveals
the most productive journal as Astrobiology followed
by Astrophysical Journal. Similarly, Charles S. Cockell
is found as the most prolific author whereas Manasvi
Lingam as the most promising author of recent years.
The study concludes with the fact that journals and the
authors’ area of interest are observed to be the key
factors which determine the longer relationship between
them. (15- 24)
A bibliometric study has been conducted by Zhang et
al. to analyze 13386 publications of the journal
‘European Journal of Medicinal Chemistry’ (EJMC)
from 1987 to 2022. A yearly increase in the productivity
has been observed in the study. Using VOSviewer
software, the network visualization of co- occurrence of
keywords reveals gradual shift in the theme of EJMC
from phenotypic drug discovery to target-based drug
discovery. The near future research themes of this
journal are directed towards tumor multidrug resistance,
dual inhibitors and oxidative stress. (1- 14)
Scholarly communications of antimicrobial resistance
(AMR) have been evaluated by Ablakimova et al. for
the time period 2013-2023 considering data from Web
of Science Core Collection. A notable increase in the
publication productivity in antimicrobial resistance is
observed indicating a growing awareness of this field.
Research collaboration is prevalent in this area. The
study reveals the most prolific journal as ‘Medicine’,
countries as USA and China, commonly encountered
microorganisms as Klebsiella pneumoniae and
Acinetobacter baumanii. Germany shows a strong
tendency towards collaborative research. The analysis
has given insights for collaborative efforts, guiding for
upcoming research priorities and improve treatment
solution for the infectious diseases. (1- 15)
3. OBJECTIVES
i. To analyze the Annual publication and citation
trend of Astrophysics literature in India
ii. To calculate the Relative Growth Rate (RGR) and
Doubling Time (Dt) of the research data.
iii. To identify top 20 highly cited articles in the field
of Astrophysics on basis of Global Citation
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
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iv. To identify the pattern of Authorship of the
publication of Astrophysics Literature
v. To assesses the citation impact of top 20 most
prolific source titles
vi. To analyze the network of Bibliographic Coupling
in terms of sources and co-occurrence of keywords
in terms of Authors’ keywords
4. METHODOLOGY
The study has been conducted by considering Clarivate
Analytics’ scientific and indexing database Web of
Science. Applying the keyword ‘Astrophysics’ in the
search field with filtration of Country as India and
Period of ten years from 2013-2022. After using the
refining criteria, a total of 4078 scholarly publications
have been retrieved from the database involving 247
publication titles, 6972 authors and 5359 keywords. The
various publications have been scattered in 3959
Articles (97.082%), 81 Review Articles (1.986%), 47
Proceeding Papers (1.153%), 24 Corrections (0.059%),
9 Editorial Materials (0.221%), 3 Letters (0.074%) and
rest are Book Chapters, Book Reviews, Data Papers,
Early Access, Retractions (0.025%) having single
contribution each. The obtained data has been analyzed
through different aspects of Scientometrics to meet the
objectives. Data has been exported in text file and
analyzed with MS Excel, VOSviewer and Biblioshiny
of R software for data visualization.
5. DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATIONS
5.1 Frequency Distribution of Publications and
Citations
The year-wise productivity of Astrophysics research
output analysis reveals an increasing trend in the growth
of the literature. The year 2022 is found as the most
productive year with 596 publications (14.62%) and
2013 as the least productive year with 243 publications
(5.96%). Exceptions are also observed in the years 2018
and 2020 which shows a slight little fall in the
productivity. Noticeably, the first half of the period
(2013-2017) contributes 1668 publications with 40.9%
share to the total Indian output whereas more than half
(59.09%) of the publications have been shared during
the last half of the period (2018-2022) with 2410
scholarly communications.
The Astrophysics literature for the study period has
gained 105771 citations for the total 4078 publications.
Every publication has got citations. The maximum
citation has received in the year 2015 for 354
publications comprises of 22353 citations whereas the
minimum citation of 1577 has received in the year 2022.
The reason for low citation in 2022 may be because it
generally takes a period of time to get citations. The
citation per paper is also highest in 2015 (63.14) and
lowest in 2022 (2.67). On an average, the citation per
year is calculated as 10577.1 and mean citation per
publication is counted as 28.42.
Table 5.1: Annual Publication and Citation trend
S.N.
Year
Total
Publications
% of
4078
Cumulative
Publications
Total
Citations
% of
105771
Citation per
Paper
1
2013
243
5.96
243
5705
5.39
23.48
2
2014
301
7.38
544
12348
11.67
40.75
3
2015
355
8.71
899
22353
21.13
63.14
4
2016
376
9.22
1275
7353
6.95
19.45
5
2017
393
9.64
1668
17890
16.91
45.41
6
2018
377
9.24
2045
15851
14.99
42.05
7
2019
473
11.6
2518
9487
8.97
20.1
8
2020
461
11.3
2979
5474
5.18
11.77
9
2021
503
12.33
3482
7733
7.31
15.4
10
2022
596
14.62
4078
1577
1.49
2.67
Total
4078
100
105771
100
284.23
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
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Fig. 5.1) Year wise distribution of publications and citations.
The primary y- axis denotes Total Publications and the
secondary y- axis denotes Total Citations. Publication
shows an increasing trend and citations a fluctuating trend.
5.2 Relative Growth Rate (RGR) and Doubling
Time (Dt) of the literature
The relative growth rate (RGR) is the increase in the
number of publications per unit of time.
Mathematically, the RGR in a particular span of time
R(a) can be calculated as:
R(a)= 𝑊2−𝑊1
𝑇2−𝑇1
Where, W1 and W2 are log w1 and log w2, Natural Log
of initial and final Publications
T 2 – T1, the unit difference between the initial and
final time
R(a) = per unit of publications per unit of time (one year
is considered as the unit of time)
The value of the difference between log of initial and
final publication would be ln 2= 0.693
Doubling time (Dt) is defined as the time required for
publications to become double of the existing amount.
(Baskaran 160-169)
Doubling time (Dt) = 0.693
𝑅𝐺𝑅
There exists a direct equivalence between the two
indicators Doubling time (Dt) and Relative growth rate
(RGR), here also, RGR decreases from 0.806 to 0.158
and doubling time increases from 0.860 to 4.438,
throughout the years from 2013 to 2022. The year 2013
shows the highest value of Relative Growth Rate (RGR)
(0.806) and lowest value of Doubling Time (Dt) (0.860)
whereas in contrast, the lowest RGR (0.156) and highest
value of Dt (4.442) has been observed in the year 2021.
Noticeably, whatever the increment or decrement, the
changes have occurred in a minimal amount.
Table 5.2: Relative growth rate (RGR) and doubling time (Dt) of publications
S.N.
Year
Total
Publications
Cumulative
(W1)
(W2)
(RGR)
(Dt)
1
2013
243
243
5.493
2
2014
301
544
5.493
6.299
0.806
0.860
3
2015
355
899
6.299
6.801
0.502
1.380
4
2016
376
1275
6.801
7.151
0.349
1.983
5
2017
393
1668
7.151
7.419
0.269
2.579
6
2018
377
2045
7.419
7.623
0.204
3.401
7
2019
473
2518
7.623
7.831
0.208
3.331
8
2020
461
2979
7.831
7.999
0.168
4.122
9
2021
503
3482
7.999
8.155
0.156
4.442
10
2022
596
4078
8.155
8.313
0.158
4.386
Total
4078
Mean
0.313
2.943
0
5000
10000
15000
20000
25000
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
TOTAL CITATION
TOTAL PUBLICATION
YEAR
Annual Publication and Citation Trend
Total Publications Total Citations
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
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5
Fig 5.2: Doubling time (Dt) and Relative Growth Rate (RGR) of Publications. Both are showing an inverse
relation of publication in which x-axis denotes year, primary y-axis indicates Doubling time (Dt) and the secondary
y-axis RGR.
5.3) Top 20 Highly Cited Articles in The Field of
Astrophysics
Table 5.3 enlists top 20 most Global cited documents
which calculates number of citations received from
documents contained in the entire database of Web of
Science. Article entitled “Planck 2013 results. XVI.
Cosmological parameters” published in 2014 in the
journal Astronomy & Astrophysics by Ade et al. has
gained the highest global citation 8187. The paper
mainly presents “the first cosmological results based on
Planck measurements of the cosmic microwave
background (CMB) temperature and lensing-potential
power spectra” (Ade et al.). The cosmological
observations based on Planck measurements is one of
the most trending research topics in the present era in
Astrophysics which could be proved from the list of 20
highly cited articles that 11 articles out of top 20 is
based on the Planck results. This series of Planck results
articles has been published in the journal “Astronomy
and Astrophysics”. Articles on observation of
Gravitational waves, gamma rays from binary neutron
star have also gained popularity. Normalized Total
Citation as extracted from the Biblioshiny package of R
Software can be seen maximum (158.36) for the article
‘Planck 2018 results: VI. Cosmological parameters’
which are calculated by actual count of citing
documents to expected citation rate for documents with
same type, year and subject coverage.
Table 5.3) Top 20 Highly Cited Articles in the area of Astrophysics (On the basis of Global Citation)
Rank
Paper
Year
Author
Total
Citations
(TC)
TC
per
Year
Normalized
TC
Source
Title
1
Planck 2013 Results. XVI. Cosmological
Parameters.
2014
Ade et al.
8187
909.67
127.67
Astronomy
& Astrophysics
2
Planck 2015 Results. XIII. Cosmological
Parameters.
2016
Ade et al.
5474
782.00
116.82
Astronomy
& Astrophysics
3
Astropy: A community Python
package for astronomy.
2013
Robitaille et al.
5305
530.50
123.29
Astronomy
& Astrophysics
4
GW170811; Observation of gravitational
waves from a Binary Neutron star Inspiral.
2017
Abbott et al.
4287
714.50
97.81
Physical
Review Letters
5
Planck 2018 results: VI. Cosmological
parameters.
2020
Aghanim et al.
2802
934.00
158.36
Astronomy
& Astrophysics
0.86
1.38
1.983
2.579
3.401 3.331
4.122 4.442 4.386
0.806
0.502
0.349
0.269
0.204 0.208 0.168 0.156 0.158
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Relative Growth Rate (RGR)
Doubling Time (Dt)
Year
Dt RGR
6
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
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Gravitational waves and gamma-rays from a
Binary Neutron star merger: GW170817
and GRB 170817A.
2017
Abbott et al.
1809
301.50
41.27
Astrophysical
Journal Letters
7
Planck 2013 Results XXII Constraints
on Inflation.
2014
Ade et al.
1505
167.22
23.47
Astronomy &
Astrophysics
8
The Astropy project: Building an open-
science
project and status of the five v2.0 core
package.
2018
Price – Whelan et
al.
1313
262.60
60.92
Astronomical
Journal
9
Gravitational waves and gamma-rays from a
binary
neutron star merger: GW170817 and GRB
170817 A.
2017
Abbott et al.
1236
206.00
28.20
Astrophysical
Journal Letters
10
Planck 2013 Results. I. Overview
of products and Scientific Results.
2014
Ade et al.
1126
125.11
17.56
Astronomy &
Astrophysics
11
The Murchinson widefield array: the square
kilometre array Precursor at low radio
frequencies.
2013
Tingay et al.
790
79.00
18.36
Publications
of the
Astronomical
Society of
Australia
12
Planck 2013 Results XXIV. Constraints
on primordial non- Gaussianity.
2014
Ade et al.
629
69.89
9.81
Astronomy
& Astrophysics
13
Planck 2015 Results XX. Constraints on
Inflation.
2016
Ade et al.
616
88.00
13.15
Astronomy
& Astrophysics
14
Dark energy survey year 1 Results:
cosmological constraints from galaxy
clustering and weak lensing.
2018
Abbott et al.
599
119.80
27.79
Physical Review d
15
The second fermi large area telescope
catalog
of gamma- ray pulsars.
2013
Abdo et al.
572
57.20
13.29
Astrophysical
Journal
Supplement Series
16
Planck 2018 results: X. Constraints on
inflation.
2020
Akrami et al.
555
185.00
31.37
Astronomy &
Astrophysics
17
Astrophysical Implications of the binary
black hole merger GW150914.
2017
Abbott et al.
547
91.17
12.48
Astrophysical
Journal Letters
18
Planck 2015 Results XI. CMB Power
Spectra, Likelihoods, and Robustness of
Parameters.
2016
Aghanim et al.
534
76.29
11.40
Astronomy &
Astrophysics
19
Planck 2015 Results I, Overview of
Products and Scientific Results.
2016
Adam et al.
508
72.57
10.84
Astronomy &
Astrophysics
20
Planck 2013 Results XV. CMB Power
Spectra and Likelihood.
2014
Ade et al.
490
54.44
7.64
Astronomy &
Astrophysics
5.4 Authorship Pattern of Publications of
Astrophysics Literature
From table 5.4, the highest number of contributions
(863 publications, 21.16%) have been reported by multi
authored publications (more than ten authors). A total of
755 publications contributing 18.51% to the total output
by three authors is reported in the second rank followed
by two authors with 700 publications (17.17%) and four
authors with 565 (13.85%) publications. Single authors
contribute only 5.2% publications. This increasing trend
of multi authorship indicates the growing interest in
research collaboration with medium-large team.
Table 5.4: Authorship Pattern of Publications of Astrophysics Literature
Sl. No
Pattern
Total
Publication
Percentage
Total Authors
Percentage
Rank
1
Single Author
212
5.20
212
1.04
VII
2
Two Authors
700
17.17
1400
6.85
III
3
Three Authors
755
18.51
2265
11.08
II
4
Four Authors
565
13.85
2260
11.05
IV
5
Five Authors
341
8.36
1705
8.34
V
7
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
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Six Authors
232
5.69
1392
6.81
VI
7
Seven Authors
162
3.97
1134
5.55
VIII
8
Eight Authors
105
2.57
840
4.11
IX
9
Nine Authors
89
2.18
801
3.92
X
10
Ten Authors
54
1.32
540
2.64
XI
11
More than ten
863
21.16
89227
38.62
I
Total
4078
101776
Fig. 5.3: Authorship Pattern of Publications in Astrophysics. Multi-authored (more than ten authored)
contributions are found highest followed by three and two authored contributions.
5.5) Impact Measures of Journals: Total Citation, h-
index, g-index, m-index and Impact Factor (IF)
Table 5.5 and Fig 5.4 represents various citation indices
of the top 20 most preferred sources. H-index, G-index,
M-index and Total Citations are obtained from
Biblioshiny app of R Package, Impact Factors (IFs) are
collected from the websites of the respective journals.
The journal Astronomy and Astrophysics publish by
EDP Sciences for European Southern Observatory
which contributes 15.03% to the total output has
attained the Highest h-index (71), g-index (210), m-
index (6.45), also the maximum Citations (48023).
Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series as publish by
American Astronomical Society is found as the highest
Impact Factor journal (IF=9.2). Contrary to that, the
journal Astrophysics publish by Springer, United Stated
has received the lowest value of all the indices i.e H-
index (3), G-index (6), M-index (0.33), TC (59) and IF
(0.673).
Table 5.5: Citation indices/impact of top 20 most prolific sources of Astrophysics research output
Sl. No.
Sources
Publication
%
value
Country/
Origin
Publisher
h-index
g
-index
m-
index
Total
citation
IF
Rank
1
Astrophysics and Space science
815
19.99
Netherlands
Springer Netherlands
37
47
3.36
8116
1.83
1
2
Monthly Notices of The Royal
Astronomical Society
673
16.50
UK
Oxford University Press
45
74
4.09
11168
5.287
2
3
Astronomy & Astrophysics
613
15.03
France
EDP Sciences
71
210
6.45
48023
5.802
3
4
Astrophysical Journal
347
8.51
UK
American Astronomical
Society
46
64
4.18
7369
5.874
4
5
Journal of Astrophysics and
Astronomy
299
7.33
India
Springer India
13
24
1.18
1193
1.27
5
6
Research in Astronomy and
Astrophysics
151
3.70
UK
IOP Publishing
14
20
1.27
743
1.469
6
8
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
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Physical Review D
107
2.62
United States
Americal Physical
Society
29
55
2.64
3278
5.296
7
8
Astrophysical Journal Letters
68
1.67
UK
American Astronomical
Society
28
67
2.8
6103
7.413
8
9
European Physical Journal C
53
1.30
Germany
Springer New York
22
36
2
1415
4.59
9
10
Astronomical Journal
45
1.10
UK
IOP Publishing
16
43
1.45
2314
6.263
10
11
Journal Of Cosmology and
Astroparticle Physics
41
1.01
UK/Italy
IOP Publishing/SISSA
16
31
2
1023
7.28
11
12
Astrophysical Journal Supplement
Series
33
0.81
UK
American
Astronomical
Society
16
32
1.45
1792
9.2
12
13
New Astronomy
30
0.74
Netherlands
Elsevier
7
13
0.64
193
1.325
13
14
Modern Physics Letters A
25
0.61
Singapore
World Scientific
7
10
1
135
1.594
14
15
Astrophysics
24
0.59
United States
Springer
3
6
0.33
59
0.673
15
16
International Journal of Modern
Physics D
23
0.56
Singapore
World Scientific
9
15
0.9
246
2.547
16
17
Publications of the Astronomical
Society of Australia
23
0.56
England
Cambridge
University
Press
14
22
1.4
1832
5.571
16
18
Physical Review C
22
0.54
United States
American Physical
Society
10
15
0.91
257
3.09
17
19
Annals Of Physics
20
0.49
Netherlands
Elsevier
8
13
0.89
194
2.73
18
20
International Journal of
Theoretical Physics
20
0.49
United States
Springer New York
6
16
0.55
257
1.708
18
21
General Relativity and
Gravitation
18
0.44
United States
Springer New York
7
11
0.64
146
2.84
19
22
Solar Physics
16
0.39
Netherlands
Springer Netherlands
7
13
0.64
175
2.961
20
* H-index for a journal is defined as the number of papers with citation no ≥ H. E.g. If an author has 3 publications each with at least 3 citations, then its h-index will be 3.
* g- index is the unique largest number such that the top g articles receive together at least g2 citations.
* M- index is measured by considering H-index i.e., H/N, where N is the number of years from its 1st publication.
* Impact Factor (IF) of a journal is calculated for a given period as the average number of citations received per publicatio n during the two preceding years.
Fig 5.4: Citation Indices/Impact of top 20 most prolific Sources of Astrophysics Research Output
5.6) Network Analysis of Bibliographic Coupling of
Sources (Weight by Citation)
Bibliographic Coupling between two items (Sources)
indicate the link between them that both items cite the
same document. Fig. 5.5 shows bibliographic coupling
of authors that cite the same sources. The coloured
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
350 Citation Impact of Journals
h-index G-index M-index IF
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
ika.2021.07.01.006
9
circles represent different sources that are co-linked
with different circles, the size of each circle represents
the citation score of the sources. Out of total 6 clusters,
the largest cluster with red colour consists of 23 sources
with 1034 links followed by Cluster 2 in green colour
and Cluster 3 in sky blue with 17 and 10 number of
sources; 773 and 288 number of total links respectively.
The highly cited Journal (46051 citations) Astronomy
and Astrophysics belongs to Cluster 2 co-linked with 53
other sources making total link strength 216885. This
journal is highly co-related with Monthly Notices of the
Royal Astronomical Society of the same cluster 2
forming total link strength 80904.
Fig 5.5: Bibliographic Coupling of Sources with weight on basis of Citation Score. Out of 246 sources, 56
sources form the largest set of connected networks with 6 clusters and 2346 total links.
Table 5.6: Cluster table for Bibliographic Coupling of Sources
Sl. No
Cluster
Colour
No of Sources
Total Link
1
Cluster 1
Red
23 (Astrophysics and Space Science, Journal of Cosmology and Astro
particle Physics, Physical Review D etc.)
1034
2
Cluster 2
Green
17 (Astronomy and Astrophysics, Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series etc.)
773
3
Cluster 3
Sky Blue
10 (Physica Scripta, Optik, Solar Physics etc.)
288
4
Cluster 4
Yellow
3 (Bulletin of Astronomical Society of India, Journal of Astrophysics
and Astronomy etc.)
142
5
Cluster 5
Dark Blue
2 (Planetary and Space Science, Publications of the Astronomical
Society of Japan)
57
6
Cluster 6
Pink
1 (Journal of Alloys and Compunds)
52
5.7) Network Analysis of Co-occurrence of
Keywords in terms of Author’s Keywords (Weight
by Documents)
VOSviewer has been used to unveil the dominant
research areas or the research trends in the field of
Astrophysics that have emerged in the period of study.
Out of total 5359 authors keywords, 172 keywords
consisting of 7 clusters are identified that met the
threshold. The most prolific keywords found in these
clusters are galaxies: active, cosmology: observations
and methods: data analysis holding total link strength of
626, 389 and 350 respectively. From table 5.8 it is clear
that the top 10 prominent keywords are in cluster 2 and
cluster 3. The largest cluster being cluster 1 in red
colour consists of 33 keywords followed by green and
blue coloured cluster with 29 keywords each.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.001 1Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
10
Fig 5.6) Co-occurrences of Author’s Keyword (Network Visualization). The network consists of 172 keywords
that co-occur with 2299 different keywords producing total link strength 7314.
Table 5.8) Top 10 most prolific keyword in terms of Total Link Strength
Rank
Keyword
Cluster
Occurrences
Total Link Strength
1
Galaxies: active
Cluster 2
251
626
2
Cosmology: observations
Cluster 3
137
389
3
Methods: data analysis
Cluster 3
136
350
4
Galaxies: jets
Cluster 2
111
314
5
Radio continuum: galaxies
Cluster 2
109
303
6
Cosmic background radiation
Cluster 3
96
264
7
Galaxies: evolution
Cluster 2
91
260
8
large-scale structure of universe
Cluster 3
81
237
9
Galaxies: ism
Cluster 2
86
233
10
Surveys
Cluster 3
88
225
Fig 5.7: Three- field plot (Sankey diagram) showing the relationship among top 10 of the three metrics viz.,
Author (middle)-Source (Left)-Keyword (Right).
11
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.001 1Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
The preponderance of the following keywords in the
clusters are identified as follows:
Cluster 1: The system (red) is connected to Accretion,
Dark Energy, General Relativity, Magnetic Field, Stars,
X-Rays etc.
Cluster 2: The system (Green) is connected to
Galaxies: Active, Galaxies: Jets, Galaxies: Evolution,
Galaxies: Star formation, Galaxies: Dwarf, Radio
Continuum: Galaxies etc.
Cluster 3: The system (Blue) is connected to
Cosmology: Observations, Galaxies: Clusters: General,
Methods: Data Analysis, Methods: Statistical,
Cosmological parameters etc.
Cluster 4: The system (Perrot Green) is connected to
Cosmic Rays; Dust, Extinction; Stars: Formation; Ism:
Molecules; Infrared: Stars; Polarization etc.
Cluster 5: The system (Purple) is connected to Stars:
Neutron, Star: Abundances, Stars: Fundamental
Parameters, Technique: Photometric, Technique:
Spectroscopic etc.
Cluster 6: The system (Sky Blue) is connected to Sun,
Sun: Corona, Sun: Flares, Sun: Magnetic Fields,
Magnetohydrodynamic, Solar Wind, Turbulence etc.
Cluster 7: The system (Orange) is connected to
Accretion, Accretion Disk; Gravitation; X-Rays:
Binaries; Hydrodynamics; Stars: Black Holes etc.
5.8 Sankey Diagram: Three-field Plot connecting
three metrics together
Three- field plot has been used to investigate the
connections between the three metrices Source- Author-
Keyword. The most connected author in the network AJ
Banday is found to have 168 publications making
relation with both top 10 sources and authors.
Astronomy and Astrophysics is the most preferred
journal in which AJ Banday prefer to publish his articles
contributing 101 publications. He has research interest
in Cosmic background radiation (72 publications),
Cosmology: Observations (56 publications) and
Methods: Data analysis (35 publications) etc. The top
10 authors mostly prefer to publish their Research in the
journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society. (324 Publications). Cosmology: Observation is
the most influenced research area in which the top 10
authors together contribute with 263 publications.
6. FINDINGS
➢ The most productive year is 2022 with 596
publications (14.62%) and the least productive
year is 2013 with 243 publications (5.96%). More
than half (59.09%) of the publications have been
shared during the last half of the period (2018-
2022) with 2410 scholarly communications.
➢ The Astrophysics literature for the study period
has gained 105771 citations for the total of 4078
publications. The maximum citation (22353) has
received in the year 2015 for 355 publications
whereas the minimum citation of 1577 has
received in the year 2022.
➢ Inverse relation can be established between the
indicators Relative Growth Rate (RGR) and
Doubling Time (Dt) where RGR decreases from
0.806 to 0.158 and Dt increases from 0.860 to
4.438 throughout the years from 2012 to 2021.
➢ The cosmological observations based on Planck
measurements is one of the most trending research
topics in the present era in Astrophysics that could
be proved from the list of 20 highly Global Cited
articles that 11 articles out of top 20 is based on
the Planck results. This series of Planck results
articles have been published in the journal
‘Astronomy and Astrophysics’.
➢ Multi- authorship or more than ten authored
contributions (863 publications, 21.16%) are found
highest followed by three and two authorships with
755 publications (18.51%) and 700 publications
(17.17%) respectively.
➢ The journal Astronomy and Astrophysics publish
by EDP Sciences for European Southern
Observatory which contributes 15.03% to the total
output has attained the highest h-index (71), g-
index (210), m-index (6.45), also the maximum
Citations (48023). Astrophysical Journal
Supplement Series as publish by American
Astronomical Society is found as the highest
Impact Factor journal (IF=9.2).
➢ The network of bibliographic coupling of sources
shows that the highest cited Journal (46051
citations) Astronomy and Astrophysics belongs to
Cluster 2 co-linked with 53 other sources. This
journal is highly co-related with Monthly Notices
of the Royal Astronomical Society of the same
cluster 2 forming total link strength 80904.
➢ The most prolific author’s keywords found are
galaxies: active, cosmology: observations and
methods: data analysis with total link strength of
626, 389 and 350 respectively.
➢ From the three-field plot of Source- Author-
Keyword, it is evident that the most connected
author AJ Banday prefer to publish his articles in
DOI: https://doi.org/10.48001/veethika.2023.09.04.0011Copyright (c) 2023 QTanalytics India (Publications)
ika.2021.07.01.006
9
the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. The top
10 authors mostly prefer to publish their Research
in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal
Astronomical Society (324 Publications).
CONCLUSION
A scientometric research in the field of Astrophysics is
carried out in order to evaluate the productivity,
authorship pattern, most trending research topics,
citation impact of most productive journals etc. An
increasing trend in the productivity can be observed as it
can be seen that more than half (59.09%) of the
publications have been shared during the last half of the
period (2018-2022) with 2410 scholarly
communications. The cosmological observations based
on Planck measurements is one of the most trending
research topics in Astrophysics which is also evident
from the list of 20 highly cited articles that 11 articles
out of top 20 is based on the Planck results. An
increasing trend of multi authorship indicates the
growing interest in research collaboration in this field.
The highest cited journal Astronomy and Astrophysics
publish by EDP Sciences is highlighted for having the
maximum H-index (71), G-index (210), M-index (6.45),
also the maximum Citations (48023). This journal can
also be seen to make highest bibliographic coupling
(with 53 other sources), highly co-related with the
journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
Society forming total link strength 80904. This is also
the most preferred journal of the most connected author
AJ Banday in the network of three metrices’
connections i.e., Source- Author- Keyword. Overall, we
can conclude that although research in Astrophysics in
India is prominent enough but it has scope for more and
better research in the near future.
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