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Annals of Library and Information Studies

Vol. 69, June 2022, pp. 129-142

Impact of Indian sponsored projects on research performance


Sheeba Pakkana*, Christopher Sudhakarb, Shubham Tripathic, Parinitha R.d, Sahana Kamat Ad and Navya Nayakd
a
Bibliometrician, Directorate of Research, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka,
*Presently at: JSS Acadamy of Higher Education & Research, Mysore,
b
Professor & Director, Department of Quality, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka,
Email: chris.sudhakar@manipal.edu
Senior Engineer, L & T Technology Services Limited, Bangaluru, Karnataka,
Email: shubhamtripathi424@gmail.com
d
MSc. students, Department of Commerce, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, Karnataka

Received: 03 December 2021; revised: 31 May 2022; accepted: 05 June 2022

Fourteen Indian research funding agencies have been studied to know their impact on research in India. Natural
Language Processing (NLP) was used to segregate and identify the funding acknowledgment from data available in Scopus.
SciVal, an analytical tool was used to analyze the data. Tableau software was used to visualize the analyzed data. The
impact of 10 years of funding by the 14 funding agencies reveals the consistency of publication output. The number of
funded publications addressing the 16 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is very few. The study result indicates the
need for a policy change among funding sponsors while considering the high priority areas. It highlights the necessity of
considering 16 SDG while funding. The outcome of this study can be used for policy discussions in the promotion of
Industry-Institutional collaborative funding and research and policy changes in funding the high priority areas of 16 SDGs in
promoting collaborative research and infrastructure.

Keywords: Research funding, Bibliometric analysis, Trend analysis, Universities

Introduction less than 1% of their GDPs5. The United States spent


The sustainability, health and well–being, and $456.1 billion on research and development in the
societal progress depend on the nation’s investment year 20136. Switzerland spent CHF 22 billion on
in scientific research. For enriching a nation’s research and development in the year 2015, which
scientific knowledge, competitiveness, and accounts for 3.4% of the country’s GDP. In India, the
contributions, research funding plays a prominent gross expenditure on R&D (GERD) in India has been
role1. Researchers, policymakers, and funders have consistently increasing over the years and has nearly
recognized the importance of funding and scientific tripled from Rs. 39,437.77 crore in 2007- 08 to Rs.
research in providing the foundations for innovative 1,13,825.03 crore in 2017-18. India’s per capita R&D
research2. This realization has been complemented by expenditure has increased to PPP (Purchasing power
an increasing amount of government funding parity) $ 47.2 in 2017-18 from PPP $ 29.2 in 2007-08.
allocation in various areas of societal importance. India spent 0.7% of its GDP on R&D in 2017-18. The
Research fund allows researchers to secure finance report from the Department of Science and
for research facilities and manpower, and provide Technology published in the year 2020 also talks
assistance to other research needs, potentially leading about similar data about the BRICS countries.7
to more autonomy and flexibility. R&D investments The process of funding for a research project is
lead to greater scientific output and, lead to a better quite lengthy and not all researchers who apply for
economic and societal performance3. Continuous funds are successful in receiving them. Funding
investments in research and development are agencies require information about researchers’
considered a key element of success4. Funding background, facilities used, equipment needed, time
systems differ across the globe and many countries involved, and overall outcome or success rate of the
across the globe invest differently in research. research. The grantee is required to write a proposal
More than 4% of South Korea’s GDP is spent on to funding agencies and the grantor is required to
research. Many of the developing countries spend, choose the best proposal. The process of writing and
130 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUNE 2022

accepting a grant is difficult for both grantee and too. If not, investigators would lose opportunities at
grantor because individual grantees would want to any career stage12. A detailed budget with
apply for research support in which they have the best justification, summarising costs of every item, and an
chances and grantors must choose research that fits explanation as to why each item in the budget is
their scientific principles. There are administration necessary to carry out research are the details that
offices in most universities, which act as a bridge and funding agencies look at in a proposal. The
ease the interaction between funding agencies and researchers should adjust the budgeted items for
researchers. inflation within the bounds of the funding agencies13.
Funding agencies from foreign countries also It was observed that research papers emanating
provide research grants to Indian researchers either from funded research had a higher quality than that of
individually or in the form of collaborations with non-funded ones14. Research can be quantified with
Indian funding agencies (Indo-US, Indo-German, the help of bibliometric measures. Some studies
Indo-Russian, Indo-Australian, etc.). highlight the importance of analyzing the public
National Education Policy 2020, which was research bodies and as a result, they could find out the
approved by the Union Cabinet of India on 29 July top institutions which required the funding15.
2020, outlines the vision of India's new education The impact of funding may affect performance
system8. A new National Research Foundation (NRF) through networking and increase the processes of
to take care of funding, mentoring, and building the collaboration, international exposure, and other
quality of research in India has been announced. It communications resulting in outstanding research
aims to fund researchers working across various outcomes. Funding will also bring recognition,
streams in India.9 To bring non-science disciplines of excellence, publication contribution, etc. that can be
research within its bounds, the NRF will fund considered a performance measure in itself, and that it
research projects across four major disciplines – may bring a positive impact on research, and the
Sciences; Technology; Social Sciences, and Arts and performance of the institutions itself16. Comparing the
Humanities. NRF aims to resolve the lack of fund funding background of five European countries
allocation, which has often been cited as one of the (Germany, Denmark, Great Britain, France, and the
biggest reasons behind the poor performance of Netherlands), found that the national research
researchers in India. performance increased due to funded publications, and
This study aims to evaluate the funded research the impact of papers that comes out of funded research
works quantitatively and qualitatively to know the programs by foreign organizations, on an average, is
impact of funding on research and society. This study higher than those of domestic ones17. The cut in
provides an insight to the funders in India and abroad government funding led researchers to collaborate with
to rethink the need for databases that highlight the firms and external institutions for funds18.
value added by them through funding, the latest Acknowledgments given in a research paper are
research areas, and what it has contributed to society. recorded in the Web of Science (WoS) database only
if the publication contains funding information. It is
Review of literature not possible to analyze the funding acknowledgments
The reasons for the insufficient performance of data of publications written in languages other than
quality research in India are lack of skilled faculty, English19. Funded publications in the areas of the 16
understaffed colleges, and so on10. A limiting step in SDGs are important. The impact of funding on these
the government funding agencies is the lengthy, not special areas is gaining importance in the present time
so transparent process, lots of paperwork, and too and the future funding distribution can be strategized
much time taken between submission of a research by looking into the outcome of funded research20.
proposal to the approval of grant10. If innovations in A funded research study has been carried out on
basic science must continue at the same speed as they EC Framework Programmes and the effect of
did in previous decades, a solid strategy for funding geographical diversity in collaborative projects. The
with timely evaluation is required11. study explains that projects with a wider diversity of
Government funding agencies should and will research partners are more likely to deliver
remain the main source of funding, but one must also innovations with greater potential. The work explains
investigate the availability of private funding options that these projects have more organizational diversity,
PAKKAN et al.: IMPACT OF INDIAN SPONSORED PROJECTS ON RESEARCH PERFORMANCE 131

offer greater learning opportunities, and have access An analysis was done on the relationship between
to a broader network of knowledge sources and research funding and citations in the field of life
competencies21. science. The study results reveal that more than
Some studies investigated the Canadian support funded, there are un-funded articles in the field of life
structure at federal level funding that aims to support sciences. Their research reveals that funded
the commercialization of the publically funded documents receive more citations than un-funded
project. The program aims to induce structural papers in all research fields of life science25. In a
reforms within the university sector to improve the funding-citation relationship analysis, it is explained
institutional capabilities to facilitate that computer science journals published more funded
commercialization projects and the support it is papers than unfunded papers. Medicine journals
providing to specific commercialization projects. The published equally funded and unfunded documents,
study reveals the support of the universities in the and finally, economics journals published more
commercialization of university innovation. unfunded than funded papers26.
Universities either provide resources for use in The present study highlights the impact of Indian
commercialization projects either directly or through sponsored projects on the research performance.
the development of professional expertise22. Fourteen Indian funding agencies that have a record
Evidence-based research evaluation is gaining of regularly funding for the last 10 years have been
importance to support various objectives for considered for this study. It aims to identify the major
institutional and researcher analysis and healthy grant funding agencies in India and their impact on research
application review. There are various methodological for building a sustainable society. The data range
measurements and bibliometric assessment of considered for the study was 10 years, and the impact
performance. A pattern of funding success data study of funding and its different quality metrics are
on Canada’s Natural Sciences and Engineering analyzed in detail. The impact of 10 years of funding
Research Council (NSERC) individual research grants by the 14 agencies reveals the consistency of
(Discovery Grant) program (2011–2014) has published articles each year with an increase in
expressed the importance of subject-specific review number and a promising number of publications
and the importance of avoiding bias in the allocation addressing the area of 16 Sustainable Development
of research funding. They have emphasized the Goals (SDGs).
importance of bibliometric measures and subject-
specific reviews in restoring confidence in the Sample and data measures of variables
objectivity and fairness of science funding Relevant data required for this analysis has been
decisions23. collected from Scopus and SciVal. Scopus has a broad
From the start of 2020, research sponsors have coverage of all subject areas. Threfore, we have used
generously funded COVID-19 research and we could the Scopus to get the relevant data for the present
expect a spurt in publications in this area. The study study. Scopus gives unparalleled and continuous
in the societal infected area has turned to the access to critical research output published across the
production of research papers 1.2% daily, based on globe. Scopus provides the platform, tools, and
notes and short papers mainly open access that insights to connect academia, government, and
supports scientific advances and discoveries as corporations. SciVal is an analytical tool that
described in the research paper. In comparison to the facilitates measuring metrics from Scopus.
areas of previous importance in the related fields Since the objective of the study is to find the
concerning respiratory disorders that are not guided impact of funded publications, the data on funding
by pandemic crisis, such as chronic obstructive outcomes as publications from the year 2010 to 2019
pulmonary disease and lung cancer gain less was collected from Scopus. We searched with the
importance in funding and research than the disease funding agency name and its known variants. The
which causes the pandemic crisis. There are data was exported to SciVal analytical tool for further
comparative studies done that explained the analysis.
emergence of new research fields under conditions of It was observed that nearly 130 funding agencies
societal crisis and the flow of research funding calls in are there which have the highest number of
these areas24. contributions in terms of publications from India
132 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUNE 2022

indexed in Scopus during the said period. After pre- exported to SciVal to get a detailed report on research
processing the data, the top 40 funding agencies with metrics. SciVal give a detailed report based on quantity
the highest funding opportunities were chosen for and quality parameters. The analyzed data was
analysis. We have used inclusion-exclusion criteria exported from SciVal to get a visual representation.
(consistency) which again limited the funding sponsor Tableau is a data visualization tool, which enables
number to 14. Table 1 gives the list of top agencies. us to visualize and analyze data quickly and
effectively. It is useful and a flexible tool for
Analysis connecting and analyzing all types of data. It is a vital
Regression analysis was used to examined the trend tool for data scientists to visualize and gain insights
of publication in the coming five years and it was into their data. Data from sources like Excel, SQL
Table 1 — Funding agencies and abbreviations
servers, and cloud-based data repositories are
compatible with Tableau. Linear regression analysis is
Sl. Funding Sponsors (sample for the study) Abbreviations
no. done to see the predictive trend for the coming five
1 Department of Biotechnology DBT years. Its user-friendly interface enables us to use its
2 University Grants Commission UGC various features with ease and speed.
3 Council of Scientific and Industrial Research CSIR
4 Board of Research in Nuclear Sciences BRNS
5 Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICAR
Funding agencies and impact study of funded
6 Department of Science and Technology DST publications
7 Ministry of New and Renewable Energy MNRE On examination of data through funding
8 Ministry of Earth Sciences MEO acknowledgment analysis, the top 10 funding agencies
9 Ministry of Human Resource Development MHRD in terms of the number of publications were found to
(Presently, Ministry of Education)
10 Ministry of Communication and Information MCIT be the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research
Technology (CSIR), Department of Science and Technology
11 Ministry of Coal MoC (DST), Department of Science and Industrial Research
12 Department of Science and Industrial DSIR (DSIR), Department of Biotechnology (DBT),
Research
University Grants Commission (UGC), Ministry of
13 Ministry of Electronics and Information MeitY
Technology Coal, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, Board
14 National Board for Higher Mathematics NBHM of Research in Nuclear Sciences, etc. (Figure 1).

Fig. 1 — The top 14 funding agencies in terms of the number of publications


PAKKAN et al.:
a IMPACT OF
F INDIAN SPON
NSORED PROJE
ECTS ON RESE
EARCH PERFO
ORMANCE 133

The impaact study of reesearch helpss to focus on the sponsors are showiing an increasse in publicatiion trends
purpose of research in nstead of jusst the research duringg the 10 yearrs. Even thouugh DST showed slow
process. Foccusing on reesearch impaact helps us to growtth in publicattions till 20115 but we coould see a
ensure that we
w get the beest possible returns
r from the suddeen change in publications
p w rapid groowth from
with
investment thhat we, as a society,
s make in research. 2015 to 2019. DST is the oldest o and most
m well-
establlished governnment fundinng sponsor in India.
Publication trend analyssis ICMR R is also an established
e goovt. agency inn the field
With the simple predicctive analysis, we can alwaays of meedical sciencees. The necesssity of trendd analysis
visualize thee trend of fuuture growth keeping a few f here is to prediict the exppected minim mum and
previous yeaars’ data. Thee linear regreession model we maximmum publicattion accordinng to the last 10 years’
have used here to predictt the future trrend and the R- perforrmance. The linear regresssion analysis and the
squared valuue for each funding
f sponnsor’s predicttive predicction model clearly
c show the
t trend in thhe growth
analysis is almost
a near 0.99
0 which isi an acceptaable and thhe tested valuue with R2 value
v for bothh funding
trend. From the trend cu urves presenteed, it is obvioous sponsors also show ws a value near
n 0.99% which
w is a
that the reseearch outputs follow the research
r fundding good predictive trend. The progressivee growth
in emerging research areaas. credited to DST showss the vaalue of publiication in
Figure 2 shows
s the pub
blications thaat acknowledgged researrch. All the fuunded projectts are given im
mportance
the DST annd the ICMR R for the period 2010 to 19 to pubblications annd the necesssity of acknoowledging
obtained from the Scopus database. BothB the fundding these funding spponsors is well knownn to the

Fig
g. 2 — Publication trend predictiion of DST and CSIR for the perriod 2010-2019
134 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUN
NE 2022

researchers and fundin ng sponsorss because the 2019, the exponenntial trend liine shows itts well-fit
publications are the on nly immediatte parameter to positioon with an R2 value of 0.99 for DBT and 0.97
convince thee progress of any
a funded prrojects. for CSSIR. The lineear regression line expressees that the
The acknoowledgment analysis resuult illustrates the number of publicattions in the crredit of DBT and CSIR
exponential trend in the publications from India and a is growwing faster annd faster overr time.
the same appplies to fund ded research also. When we Thee Council off Scientific & Industrial Research
look at the publications
p or the past 100 years we could
fo (CSIRR) promotes, guides, and coordinates
c reesearch in
see a promiising growth trend. Figurre 3 shows the India to transllate researcch investmeent into
publications that acknow wledged DBT T and CSIR for improovement in the quality of human life. The
the period from
f 2010 too 2019 whicch are colleccted tremenndous growthh in the creddit of CSIR showss the
from the Scoopus databasee. Both the fuunding sponssors value of publicatioon in interdiscciplinary reseearch. The
are showingg an increasiing trend in the publicattion growtth trend inn DBT shoows an inccrease in
number duriing the 10 yeears. Even thhough there is i a publiccations in the area of biotecchnology.
slight drop in the publication numbber for the year y Unnder the Miniistry of Educcation, many programs
2015 for both funding agencies we w could seee it are innitiated for the
t promotioon and state--of-the-art
reverse backk with a hit in
i publicationn number in the delibeerations of thhe research too the societyy with the
coming yearrs. The necessity of trend analysis heree is aim of innovation, patenting, annd technologyy transfer.
to predict the
t expectedd minimum and maxim mum The Ministry
M of Eaarth Sciences and Ministryy of Ocean
publication according to the laast 10 yeaars’ Devellopment of Inndia is responnsible for thee research
performancee. In the grow wth analysis period, 2010 - and development
d of weather, climate, occean, and

Fig
g. 3 — Publicatioon trend predictiion of DBT and CSIR for the peeriod 2010-2019
PAKKAN et al.:
a IMPACT OF
F INDIAN SPON
NSORED PROJE
ECTS ON RESE
EARCH PERFO
ORMANCE 135

coastal issuees like naturall hazards, marrine living, noon- and MeitY
M expreesses the exxponential growth
g in
living resourrces, etc. Botth the fundingg sponsors haave publiccations over the
t last 10 years. The R2 valuev of 1
publications in their cred dit from 2010 to 2019 but the for MeitY
M and 0.998 for UGC are a clear indication
i
publication amount is very v less wheen comparedd to that thhe publicationn trend is givving a promisiing future
other fundiing sponsorss. Under thhe Ministry of indicaating the need to concenttrate on fundding these
Education, many progrrams are innitiated for the areas of research more
m in the coming years.
promotion anda state-of-the-art delibberations of the Infformation tecchnology is the t area thatt analyzes
research to the society with w the aimm of innovatiion, technoology trends,, identifies thhrust areas, anda leads
patenting, and
a technology transfer. These fundding the world through AI and ML technologies.. Ministry
sponsors aree funding the very importannt and emerging of Eleectronics andd Informationn Technologyy (MeitY)
areas of scieence and we can c expect morem exponential also promotes reesearch by funding f breaakthrough
growth in thhis area in thee coming futuure. In Figuree 4, researrch in the reelated subject areas in developing
d
the linear trrend lines forr both the fuunding sponssors new teechnologies for
f the benefitt of humanityy.
show very good
g growth in the future years
y with an R2 Minnistry of Cooal funding agency hass a good
value of 1 anda it is a promising
p trennd for both the number of publicattions creditedd in their accoount from
funding sponnsors. 2010 tot 2019. Ministry of New and Renewabble energy
In Figure 5, we could see that evenn after having a looks after all thhe aspects relating
r to New
N and
few publicattions in the credit,
c the trennd line of UGGC Renew wable Energyy. Fund alloccation and diistribution

Fig. 4 — Publicationn trend predictioon of MHRD andd MEO for the period
p 2010-20199
136 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUNE 2022

Fig. 5 — Publication trend prediction of UGC and MeitY for the period 2010-2019

on energy consumption, the production, distribution, period, 2010 -2019, the exponential trend line shows
and various aspects of energy-saving, green energy, its well-fit position with an R2 value of I for the
etc., are among the many areas in which state of the Ministry of Coal and 0.97 for MNRE.
art research is needed. Research proposals submitted
by researchers in these areas will be peer-reviewed, Total Publication on 16 SDGs VS Publications as
and eligible themes and state-of-the-art research an Outcome of Funded Project
proposals will be selected for the award of research Knowledge creation and research are essential for
funds. the growth and sustainability of a large and dynamic
The research in the area of Coal focuses mainly on economy, the vigorous development of society, and
improving production and safety in coal mines. On the continuous effort of a country to reach higher
the other side, the beneficiation, utilization, and peaks in all walks of life.
protection of the environment. Institutions that do Due to the rapid development changes today, such
research in this area will submit proposals with the as climate change, increasing population, expansion of
latest technological ideas, and those will be peer- digital markets, and development of Machine Learning
reviewed. Funds will be allocated to implement those and Artificial Intelligence, a robust research ecosystem
novel ideas. Significant funding and a large amount of is more important than ever. For this, a country must
dedicated research in this area started in the last five significantly expand the scope of research, create
years. Figure 6 shows the publications that opportunities, come up with remarkable achievements
acknowledged MNRE and the Ministry of Coal in all disciplines, and genuinely allocate research funds
during the period 2010 to 19. Both the funding to enrich these diversified fields. This study
sponsors are showing an increase in publication investigates the contribution of sponsored publications
trends. Even though there are very few publications in in developing societal important topics of 16 United
their credit each year in comparison to the major Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
funding agencies in India. In the growth analysis Although the SDGs are divided into 17 distinct
PAKKAN et al.:
a IMPACT OF
F INDIAN SPON
NSORED PROJE
ECTS ON RESE
EARCH PERFO
ORMANCE 137

Fig. 6 — Publication trennd prediction of MNRE


M and Ministry of Coal forr the period 20100-2019

components, the objectiv ves are inexxtricably linkked, strongg institutionss, and creaating partnerrships to
creating an indivisible structure
s aimeed at achievving achievve SDG goalss.23
integrated suustainability from
f a structuural perspectiive. To achieve greeater progresss in the ambbitious 16
On the one hand, achieviing one objecctive or aim can c SDGss the involvem ment of policcymakers, andd research
aid in the acchievement off other objecttives. Goals and a fund sponsors is very importaant at all levvels. This
their associatted targets aree linked to shaaping a compplex study and the quuantification of research outcomes
web of interconnections. Compprehending the based on funded research
r are of importancce in this
connections among the SDGs and thheir targets will w contexxt. To know w the achievement all funding
aid in the identification n of possiblee synergies and a sponsors got in the progreess of deveeloping a
trade-offs. SDG
S researcch is mainlyy focussing on sustainable societty, hence it is very important
ending poveerty, ending hunger, enccouraging goood to annalyze and seee the achievement of all a SDGs.
health and well-being, providing
p quuality educatiion, Figurees 7 and 8 are visualizzations of 16 SDGs’
promoting gender equalitty, providing clean water and a contriibutions to Inndia for the past
p 10 yearrs and the
sanitation, promoting
p afffordable andd clean enerrgy, acknoowledgment analysis of this data gave the
providing decent
d work k and econnomic grow wth, researrch output off major fundinng sponsors. From the
addressing industry,
i innnovation, andd infrastructuure, figurees, we could see that SDG 3, SDG 5, SDG 6,
reducing inequalities, developing suustainable citties SDG 11, SDG 12, SDG 13, annd SDG 15 can c claim
and com
mmunities, encouragingg responsiible that thhey have 10 to
t 14 percentt of contributiions. This
consumptionn and prod duction, takiing action on analyssis will give funding sponnsors and poliicymakers
climate channge, promoting g life below water,
w promotting to evaaluate and rellease future funding
f in thee areas of
life on landd, working towardst peacce, justice, and
a primee importance.
138 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUN
NE 2022

Fig. 7 — Publication contribution


c of govt.
g funded andd non-funded pubblications on SD
DG1 to SDG 8 foor the year 2010--19

Fig. 8 — Publication co
ontribution of goovt. funded and non-funded publications on SDG
G 9 to SDG 16 for
f the year 20100-19
PAKKAN et al.:
a IMPACT OF
F INDIAN SPON
NSORED PROJE
ECTS ON RESE
EARCH PERFO
ORMANCE 139

Bibliometriccs Analysiss of the Top T 14 Goovt. CSIR,, and DBT publications


p a cited, folllowed by
are
Funding Sponsors in Ind dia BRNS S, ICAR, DST,
D MNRE,, MEO, MH HRD, etc.
The biblliometric stu udy doesn’t only see the havingg 94% to 91% of puublications are a cited.
collaborativee and quantityy of publications, it evaluaates The quality and importance of funded research
the impact of each pu ublication givven to socieety. outpuut are easily explained from fr this meetric. The
Previously, bibliometric
b studies conceentrate more on publiccations that come
c out of each fundingg sponsor
quantificatioon, collaborattion nodes, top authors, etc.
e are citted by 150 -2200 countries.. This metric also talks
here the stuudy has been n concentratinng more on the about the worldw wide acceptaance and qualityq of
impact of publication
p annd its evaluaation was doone researrch in India.
using variouus metrics. Whhile analyzingg the differentt types of collaboration
9 10, and 11 explain the outcome of the
Figures 9, and thheir impacts such
s as Internnational, Natiional, and
Indian govt. funded reseearch publicattions for the 10 Instituutional, we coould see that more
m than intternational
years duratiion (2010-19 9) with the help h of varioous collabboration, natioonal and instiitutional collaaborations
metrics. As far as publiccation numbeer is concernned, are brringing publiccations. But thhere are moree than ten
DST scoress the highest with 584002 followed by thousaand publicattions for DST D which may be
CSIR (336663), DBT (12984),
( UGGC(10961), and a collabborative projects with foreignf counntries. To
BRNS (87990). Also, whilew analyzinng the citattion increaase the econom mic and socieetal impact of research
received for the last 10 years,
y these fuunding sponssors netwoorks, it is veryy essential to know
k the orgaanizational
came on toop positions. The cited publication is and geographic
g divversity of collaborating innstitutions
another impportant metric that proviides among the and countries
c andd their econoomic outcomee.22 This
many publisshed research h papers how w many articcles kind ofo preliminarry study is esssential to inccrease the
got cited in a span of tim
me. It is very promising
p to see impacct of publicaation incorporration with groups g of
the cited publication
p data
d where 96% of UG GC, peoplee with differeent cultural baackgrounds.

Fig. 9 — Output of funnded project andd important metrrics


140 ANN. LIB. INF. STU., JUN
NE 2022

Fig. 100 — Output of fuunded project annd important mettrics

Fig. 11 — Output of fuunded project annd important mettrics


PAKKAN et al.: IMPACT OF INDIAN SPONSORED PROJECTS ON RESEARCH PERFORMANCE 141

The highest number of publications came from policy for the improvement of collaborative research
institutional collaborations than others. When we and infrastructure. Impact study of funding outcome
analyze the data more deeply to the impact level we from the acknowledgment text in Scopus is a new
could see more impact coming from internationally way of study in bibliometrics. Scopus database covers
funded publications. These results can be utilized for a large number of journals in comparison with other
framing policy changes by funding sponsors by databases. Therefore, the funding details from Scopus
encouraging collaboration with foreign universities gave a large coverage to Indian funding agencies. In
and funding bodies. Patent-citation count for each this paper, we have introduced a new approach to the
funding agency could be another metric that will help funding text data. We have retrieved the data from
in formulating strategies and policies for the Scopus and for analysis; we implemented the method
improvement of research. These metrics should be to import it to SciVal analytical tool. This technique
used for decision making, and policy formation and gave us important information on the number of
can be a way of understanding the necessity of publications, 16 Sustainable Development Goals and
patenting the ideas before publishing the work. Many their link to the funding agencies, different quality
initiatives are emerging at the university level and metrics like citations, Quartile of Journals selected for
country level for the commercialization of research publishing, years of growth, etc. The result of the
which leads to different policy changes, and study has many consequences, which is important for
legislative changes with high expectations, funding agencies, researchers, and institutions. Below
universities have also improved their policies to create are the potential recommendations for further
incentives for researchers. research:
1. Complementary analyses could be conducted to
Conclusion and recommendations know the fellowship distributions by funding
The present research analysis is performed because agencies.
of the lack of studies undertaken in India on the 2. Funding agencies should look seriously at the
output and impact of funded research projects and data on the relation between 16 SDGs and future
sponsors. This study reveals three intriguing thrust areas of R&D programs.
observations related to the outcome of funded 3. Researchers and Institutions can create databases
research programs. through which they can find the relationship
1. The funding sponsors who have the highest and between sanctioned funds and funding outcomes.
lowest number of research outputs in their credit 4. Future research should be carried out with external
must caution the importance of acknowledging collaborations (International and National)
the funder in each publication. involving more than research funding agencies.
2. The present study has enlightened the importance
of 16 SDGs and the output of the funded research Acknowledgment
projects related to them. This study has  This work is executed under the research project
highlighted the importance of evaluating the entitled “Influence of Government Policies and
already released funding in these areas and can be Funding on the Research Output of Government
used as a metric for formulating new policy in the and Private Institutions in INDIA: A Bibliometric
globally important area of research. and Scientometric Study, Govt. of India, under
3. Policymakers can formulate policies rethink and NSTMIS
strategize foreign policy by looking at the scheme, Ref. (No. DST/NSTMIS/ 05/41/2017-18
collaborative and patent-cited metrics. dated 28.02.2019)
4. The bibliometric parameters analyzed in the study  For Data and Metrics, we are thankful to Scopus
will enrich the university administrators in and SciVal
formulating new research policies and
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