Viewing citation trend of Indian physics and astronomy research papers since 2005 through the lens of some new indicators

TL;DR

This paper analyzes citation trends in Indian physics and astronomy research from 2005 to 2020 using the new Citation Swing Factor and other indicators, revealing close alignment between theoretical and observed values.

Contribution

It introduces new scientometric indicators and compares theoretical and observed citation diffusion metrics for Indian physics research.

Findings

Average error between theoretical and observed CSF is 2.26%.

New indicators TC, CU, and TU are defined and analyzed.

Temporal variations and relationships among indicators are established.

Abstract

The indicator Citation Swing Factor (CSF) has recently been developed to measure this diffusion process quantitatively on the basis of h-core citations, excess citations and total citations. The observed or experimental value of CSF as followed from the basic definition is (d{\theta}/d{\epsilon}), which resulted (-R3/he2) based on a theoretical calculation, where R2, h2 and e2 indicate total citations, h-core citations and excess citations respectively. The later expression indicates the expected or theoretical value of CSF. This paper found out (d{\theta}/d{\epsilon}) for Indian physics research output appeared in selective Indian journals since 2005 to 2020 and compared it with the respective theoretical values. The average error over entire time span is found 2.26% indicating close proximity between theoretically expected and practically observed values. Besides, three other scientometric indicators are introduced here, viz. Time-Normalised Total Cited Ratio (TC), Time-Normalised Cited Uncited Ratio (CU) and Time-Normalised Total Uncited Ratio (TU). The numerical values of these indicators are found out for the same sample and the temporal variations along with their mutual interrelationships are determined by regression analysis.