Research Output

Total research output of Indian research, within the 2010-2019 period from the top 1000 institutions.

Indian Research Output during 2010 - 2019

Indian Research Output in the 2010 to 2019 period has grown significantly in volume. While a total of 60,250 publications were there in 2010, by 2019 this increased to 148,724. The Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) has been 9.46% which is higher than the world average CAGR( 5.62%). India's global share of research output has also increased in this period, from 2.17% in 2010 to 3.1% in 2019. The figures below present year-wise research output of India and world, and also India's global share.

Research output statistics
Global share of research output

India's global rank in research output has also been improving constantly during this period. In the year 2010, India ranked 10th globally in research output volume, which improved to 9th in 2011 and 2012, 8th in 2013, 7th in 2014, and 6th in 2015. From 2015 onwards, India continues to be ranked 6th globally in research output volume. The countries ranking above India are - United States, China, United Kingdom, Germany, Japan. The figure below shows year-wise ranked positions of India during this period.

Research output rank

Comparison with other major countries

For a better understanding of India's research performance, the values of research output volume, CAGR, and global share of 20 major countries are compared, as shown in the Table below. It can be seen that India has a high CAGR value of 9.46%, which is lesser than only three countries - Russia (11.43%), Iran (10.56%) and China (9.50%). In terms of global share, India accounts for 2.95% of the total research output of the world during 2010-2019 period.

Research Output Comparison

Rank Country No. of research publications CAGR % Global Share %

Subject area distribution of Indian Research Output

Indian research output is visualized in 22 major fields of research, as provided by the Dimensions database. India's research output is dominated by subjects like Medical & Health Sciences, Engineering, Chemical Sciences and Information & Computing Sciences. The subject-area distribution of Indian research output as well as the world-wide research output is shown in the figures below -

Subject Area Distribution of Indian Research Output
Subject Area Distribution of World Research Output

Subject Area-wise CAGR, Global Share and Rank

As seen in the subject area distribution above, India's research performance varies across different subject areas. For the 2010 to 2019 period, India's global rank varies from 3rd in Chemical Sciences (and also Information & Computing Sciences, Technology) to 10th in Medical & Health Sciences, 15th in Studies in Human Society, 20th in History & Archaeology and 28th in Philosophy and Religious studies. These variations are observed in subject-area wise global shares as well. While, Indian Research Output in Technology constitutes 6.63% of global share, it is just 0.34% in Philosophy & Religious studies. The CAGR values in different subject areas also vary with Information and Computing Sciences (13.91%), Environmental Sciences (13.43%) and Engineering (12.83%) being the three fastest growing subject areas. The CAGR values for India in all the subject areas are found to be higher than the world average.

Subject Area-wise CAGR, Global Share and Rank

Subject Area Indian Research Publications World Research Publications India's Global Share (%) India's Rank India's CAGR (%) World's CAGR (%)

Data Sources & Methodology

The above analysis and outputs are generated using data obtained from Dimensions and Altmetric (a part of Digital Science ).

Gender information was collected using the Gender API portal .