Most Indian Bio-Medical Journals with Top Impact Factors are Open Access Journals

Few days back I got an email giving latest (2010) Impact Factors for Indian Journals according to JCR. I selected Bio-Medical Journals out of these and ranked them according to their Impact Factors.

Journal	ISSN	IF (2010)	Access Type
J BIOSCIENCES	0250-5991	1.888	Open
INDIAN J MED RES	0971-5916	1.826	Open
J POSTGRAD MED	0022-3859	1.589	Open
J GENET	0022-1333	1.338	Open
INDIAN J VIROL	0970-2822	1.133	Closed
ANN THORAC MED	1817-1737	1.06	Open
INDIAN J MED MICROBI	0255-0857	1.006	Open
INDIAN J MICROBIOL	0046-8991	0.938	Closed
INDIAN J DERMATOL VE	0378-6323	0.932	Open
INDIAN PEDIATR	0019-6061	0.9	Open
NEUROL INDIA	0028-3886	0.834	Open
INDIAN J OPHTHALMOL	0301-4738	0.827	Open
J CANCER RES THER	0973-1482	0.825	Open
ALLELOPATHY J	0971-4693	0.635	Closed
INDIAN J PATHOL MICR	0377-4929	0.57	Open
NATL MED J INDIA	0970-258X	0.541	Open
INT J DIABETES DEV C	0973-3930	0.509	Closed
INDIAN J PEDIATR	0019-5456	0.502	Closed
INDIAN J PHARM SCI	0250-474X	0.455	Open
PHARMACOGN MAG	0973-1296	0.432	Open
ANN INDIAN ACAD NEUR	0972-2327	0.415	Open
INDIAN J PHARMACOL	0253-7613	0.303	Open
INDIAN J ORTHOP	0019-5413	0.285	Open
INDIAN J PHARM EDUC	0019-5464	0.163	Open

Contrary to the common myth that open access journals lack quality - the top journals, as can be seen from above table, are Open Access Journals.

Where do Indian Open Access Repositories stand in world ranking?

January 2010 Edition of the "The Ranking Web of World repositories" is now available. Cybermetrics Lab has been bringing out such ranking of open access repositories for past few years.

Ranking of Indian Repositories in top 400 world's repositories is given below:

82 - Indian Institute of Science Bangalore ePrints

148 - Openmed

180 - Indian Statistical Institute Digital Library

218 - Indian Institute of Astrophysics Dspace

245 - National Institute of Oceanography India Digital Repository

278 - Raman Research Institute Digital Repository

370 - National Aerospace Laboratories Institutional Repository

Visibility occupies more weight in their methodology as compared to number of documents in repository.



So, how does India score - Good, bad or just OK?

Access to the scientific literature in India

A paper Access to the scientific literature in India uses an evidence-based approach to assess the difficulties faced by developing country scientists in accessing the scientific literature. According to this paper Indian scientists have shorter references lists; they are more likely to cite articles from open access journals and are less likely to cite articles from expensive journals.

Ranking of Indian Repositories

Ranking of Indian Repositories based on Ranking of Web of World Repositories, January 2009 Edition.

World Ranking among all types of Repositories               

• 38      Indian Institute of Science Bangalore ePrints   
• 105    Indian Statistical Institute Digital Library   
• 119    OpenMED@NIC   
• 208    Indian Institute of Astrophysics Dspace   
• 212    Raman Research Institute Digital Repository   
• 234    National Institute of Oceanography India Digital Repository   

 

World Ranking among Institutional Repositories      

• 28      Indian Institute of Science Bangalore ePrints   
• 89      Indian Statistical Institute Digital Library   
• 190    Indian Institute of Astrophysics Dspace   
• 194    Raman Research Institute Digital Repository   
• 208    National Institute of Oceanography India Digital Repository
• 279    National Aerospace Laboratories Institutional Repository

India 2009 - an authoritative reference book on India available for download

Publication Division of Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (Government of India) brings out an annual reference book on India every year. It usually contains comprehensive and authentic information on various subjects and facts on India. It covers economy, rural and urban development, industry and infrastructure, art and culture, health, defense, mass communication etc. It also covers important events of previous year.


It is a priced publication costing Rs. 345/- and available both in Hindi and English languages. However it available as PDF files from Publication Division's website. I could download it from the following links.

• India 2009 (A Reference Annual) in English. File Size 9.90 MB
• भारत 2009 in Hindi. File Size 14.92 MB

Annual Review of ReadWrite web technology in India - State of Innovation in India: 2009

ReadWriteWeb has a latest post calling it annual review of State of Innovation in India: 2009. Zoho; DimDim; Mkhoj; iYogi; TutorVista; Ubona; Mscriber; Obopay and Naukri finds mention in it.

LIS Blogs in India

Sri Badan Barman of Guwahati has compiled a list of 44 Library and Information Science Blogs in India. He has picked these from 69 blogs after hard work of ten days. He feels that Indian LIS bloggers are not professional enough to attract large number of readers. He advises bloggers to remain focussed on one or two themes.

Anyway, let me console myself - I write for myself.

2009 - Yet Another New Year for me?

Wish you all a very Happy New Year - 2009. I rarely write about myself. So I will not write much.

People make 'New Year Resolutions'. I don't know how many of them actually stick to these resolutions. I had no any such resolution last year. So the question of sticking to such a resolution did not arise.

Last year was just fine for me. I was involved in few things, but the one that gives me satisfaction is the formation of a professional society - Open Knowledge Society. This is what I dreamed about three years back - a platform for people involved in promotion of "Open Access" in India. I am happy that a platform has been erected. I am proud to be one of its founder members. So now the stage is there, but now what about the actors? Well, they are still missing. So, If I can bring in more actors to this stage in 2009, I would consider having done something in this New Year.

Happy New Year.

Institutional Blogs - Bioinformatics Institute of India

Bioinformatics Institute of India is encouraging its members - students, alumni, non students - to post and comment to its Blog. The Blog focuses on Bioinformatics, Biotechnology, Pharma Regulatory Affairs, Clinical Trials, Drug Design and Discovery, IPR, GMP.

Indian Bloggers - Active Lot

Indians are not just dominating global software industry. They are active on the blogosphere as well. They don't just blog, they network themselves as well. Just have a look at IndiBlogger. It is serves as a directory of Indian Bloggers and a platform for networking among them. They also meet in real world. At state level as well they do have groups - for example take the case of Delhi Bloggers Group. They are ready to form a registered society called - The Delhi Blog & New Media Society. Here also they network and meet together (Flickr: Delhi Blog & New Media Society). A new search engine cum directory - India Blogs- has been lunched. It is based on Google Custom Search and claims to cover India's top and most read blogs. Yet another tool is available to be in touch with Indian Blogs - BlogsJam It is an aggregating service brings best blogs at one place. There are other bloggers too but perhaps not listed in such general directories. Some Librarians and Information Science professionals blog too. They are listed at Librarians Library along with other content.

ibibo, How much time you would take to upload my Photos from Flickr?

I went for a try of much advertised ibibo - a new social network from India. It is supposed to provide a facility for uploading of Flickr photos. However it is not working for me. I have done what all is required to grant permissions from my Flickr account. Still after two tries in last one week, the same information is being displayed.

.."Your import is still in progress. Once this upload gets completed, you will be informed by mail. You can then upload photos from your other flickr accounts too"..

Update: 18 Feb 2008: Now my ibibo account shows 200 Photographs (My Flickr account has few more). However I am yet to receive any email from ibibo. Also the above message is still there.

Update: 20 Feb 2008: So finally I have been informed through email that my photos have been imported from Flickr.

Google's Trends would tell you what India is looking for?

According to a post - What's India searching for online? on Google's Blog, Google Trends for India has been launched. It is updated daily for Hot Trends. You can compare search trends for different terms. Its also shows day's 100 Hot Trends.