Emerging Structure of Stem Cell Research in India: An Analysis of Publication Output, 1990-2014

The potential of stem cell to change the face of medical treatment has brought it to the forefront of medical science in recent years. The present study analyzes the stem cell research output of India during 1990-2014 collected from the Scopus database. Some of the parameters used for analysis are publication output, publication share, growth rate, h-index, impact per paper, citation analysis, international collaboration and degree of collaboration, etc. The increasing significance of stem cell research was analyzed by ranking countries, institutions, authors, journals, etc. concerning total publication, their citation, and h-index. It is exciting to note that there has been notable growth in stem cell research publication from India. A total of 3964 papers were contributed by Indian authors during the study period, out of which 71.24% have been cited at least once and has a citation average of 9.27 citations per paper. Given the interdisciplinary and complex nature of the field, most of the research output is multiple authored and out of which more than one-third have internationally collaborated. The United States, which is the top most producing country, also the largest collaborative partner of India in stem cell research. The AIIMS and PlosOne are the most productive institution and journal respectively in this field.