An evaluation of the economics research in India during last three decades (1989-2019)

This paper presents a scientometric study of the research publications from the discipline of economics in India. The high-quality publications indexed in Web of Science over the last three decades are considered for the analysis. The main motive behind this study is to reveal the progress made in the discipline by the researchers affiliated with Indian institutions, their research outreach and their top research interests. The publications and citation structures are analyzed first giving the publication distribution over time followed by the general citation structure, top cited journals and the top twenty-five cited publications. Further, author and institutions are analyzed along with a detailed cocitation analysis. The results indicate that the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) and University of Delhi have brought more significant publications with ISI being the most collaborative institution. The results also show that competition, economic growth, developing country and unemployment are the most significant research topics in the country. Though currently the contribution of India to the global economics research is very less but the trends show that it will substantially increase over the years.