Mathematics research in India today: What does the literature reveal?

Mathematics research in India, as reflected by papers indexed in Mathsci 19 88-1998, is quantified and mapped. Statistics, quantum theory and general t opology are the three subfields contributing the most to India's output in mathematics research, followed by special functions, economics and operatio ns research, and relativity and gravitational theory. Indian Statistical In stitute and Tata Institute of Fundamental Research are the two leading publ ishers of research papers. Unlike in many other fields, Calcutta publishes the largest number of papers in mathematics, followed by Mumbai, New Delhi, Chermai and Bangalore. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Delhi are the leading states. Researchers from 257 institutions spread over 134 cities/towns have published 17,308 papers in the 11 years. About 92% of these papers have appeared in 877 journals published from 62 countri es. Journals published in the USA, UK and the Netherlands are popular with Indian mathematicians. Of the 36 journals that have published at least a hu ndred papers, 20 are Indian journals of which only two are indexed in Journ al Citation Reports. In all, about 38.5% of papers have been published in I ndian journals, as against about 70% in agriculture, 55% in life sciences, 33.5% in medicine and 20% in physics. In the later years, there has been a moderate shift to non-Indian journals. Close to 78% of papers have come fro m universities and colleges and 13% from the institutions under science rel ated departments. Almost all papers in high impact journals are physics rel ated and most of them have come from institutions under the Department of A tomic Energy. Over 15% of the 9760 papers published during 1993-1998 are in ternationally coauthored. In all of science, as seen from Science Citation Index, 14% of Indian papers were internationally coauthored in 1991 and 17. 6% in 1998, The USA, Canada, and Germany are the important collaborating na tions, followed by France, Italy, Japan and the UK.