Bibliometric observation of publication output of university teachers: A study with special reference to physics

Context: Bibliometrics are now considered as an established practice to assess the academic output of research. Publication productivity is expressed by the number of papers published by a selected unit in a given time. In Kerala, although higher education and research have much wider importance and the publication productivity is also increasing, no systematic attempt has been made to analyze the pattern of this literature productivity. In this context, it is relevant to examine the productivity patterns of the faculty members of the universities. Materials and Methods: This study is based on the data collected from the publications of teachers pertaining to physics department of the three universities of Kerala that is, University of Kerala, Mahatma Gandhi University and University of Calicut collected from annual reports and the university websites. Analysis is based onbibliometric techniques: To find out authorship pattern, degree of collaboration (DC), fitness of Lotka's law, year-wise and designation-wise distributions. Results: It is found that the DC among the teachers is high among the physics faculties of Universities. Lotka's law seems to be satisfactory in UoC only. Nonopen access journals are preferred by the physics teachers, but seem a slight shift in the use of open access journals is also there. Designation-wise distribution shows that professors are the major contributors to the physics literature. Conclusion: It can be concluded that universities can attain visibility, prestige, and credibility in the broader academic community by producing high-quality research and this in turn enhance the reputation of the universities and provide a greater opportunity for attracting better students and faculty.