A scientometric assessment of research on white spot syndrome virus (WSSV) in India vis-a-vis the world (1998-2017)

White spot syndrome virus (WSSV) is one of the most devastating pathogens, which inflicted huge losses to the shrimp farming sector in India and the world. The current study maps the WSSV research output during 1998-2017 using Web of Science (WoS) database. A total of 1786 tags were subjected to the present analysis which covers various parameters viz., growth, rank and global publications share, research collaborations and other bibliometric indicators like total citation counts, average citations per paper, and h-Index. India accounted for 17.24% of the global WSSV publications, and stood second among the 15 most productive countries in terms of number of publications in this period. The Indian researchers had networked with 23 collaborating partners across the world, of which USA, the lead collaborating country accounted for 18.51% of the total papers with international collaboration. The study showed a positive correlation between the grants awarded to the research laboratories and their research productivity. The paper provides quantitative analysis on the leading institutions and individual researchers, significantly contributing to the WSSV research in India. The journal Aquaculture carried the maximum number of research papers on WSSV from India (53 papers), followed by Fish and Shellfish Immunology (32 papers) and Diseases of Aquatic Organisms (25 papers). The analytical results of the present study provide insights into the trends of WSSV research in India and calls for concerted efforts to enhance focussed research on this significant threat to the 4.8 billion USD worth shrimp farming sector, which has the potential to reverse the fortunes of the farmers.