Covid-19 and Environmental Sciences: A Scientometric Assessment of India’s Publications

Background: As the Covid-19 pandemic increased exponentially across the globe, it has threatened the human lives and uprooted the economy of various cities and nations, besides having a major impact on the environment. In a matter of a few months, the world has transformed its way of living. The global disruption caused by the Covid-19 has brought about several effects on the environment and climate. Hence, a scientometric study of the India’s publications in impact of Covid-19 on environment has been conducted to identify the emerging research trends in this field. Methods: The study downloaded India’s publications on this topic from the Scopus database using a well-defined research strategy, which was based on using all keywords related to Covid-19 in “Keyword” and “Title” search tags of Scopus database. The search was subsequently restricted to “Environmental Sciences” subject, and limited to “India” yielding 805 records. Results: The 805 Indian publications were published on ‘Covid-19 and Environmental Sciences” as searched in Scopus database and these have received 8275 citations, averaging 10.28 citations per paper. The 30.19% and 36.64% share of India’s publications received external funding support and involve international collaboration. Among India’s foreign collaborating partner countries, USA contributed the largest share (27.80%), followed by U.K. (21.02%), China and Saudi Arabia (14.24% each) and Australia (13.9%). Among 380 participating organizations, Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences, Nagpur, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur and Academy of Scientific and Innovative Research, New Delhi contributed the largest number of papers (31, 26 and 26 papers) and Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi (47.5 and 4.68), Karunya Institute of Technology and Sciences (28.29 and 2.79) and Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar (19.75 and 1.95) registered the largest citation impact. Among 945 participating authors, M. Kumar, S. Gautam and R. Kumar contributed the largest number of papers (25, 13 and 10 papers) and A. Narayanasamy (61.17 and 6.03), S. Gautam. (30.46 and 3.0) and M. Joshi (27.29 and 2.69) registered the largest citation impact. Indian Journal of Forensic Medicine and Toxicology, Science of the Total Environment and Environmental Science and Pollution Research contributed the largest number of papers (76, 60 and 45 papers) and Environmental Pollution (12.0), Aerosol and Air Quality Research (11.12), Modeling Earth Systems and Environment (10.50) registered the largest citation impact of paper. The most significant keywords associated with “Covid-19 and Environmental Science” along with their frequency are: Air Quality (124), Air Pollution (96), Particulate Matter (91), Atmospheric Pollution (65), Environmental Monitoring (52), etc. Conclusion: The results of the present study are focused on evaluation of the India’s contribution, focusing on both national and international issues using quantitative and qualitative methods. Such a study has allowed us to visualize the research trends that emerged during the Covid-19 pandemic and will facilitate the researchers to identify significant hotspots and latest trends in the field.