In recent years, research publication in Science Citation Index (SCI) journals with impact factor (IF) has become a prerequisite for a researcher or a professional seeking placement in reputed academia or research organizations. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) gives weightage to research publications in SCI journals from a research scholar while considering him for selection for the award of research fellowship. The University Grants Commission (UGC) also focuses citation index of publications of authors for academic evaluation.
The fact that SCI journals, impact factor and citation index are used for various research purposes is definitely due to growing acceptance of assessing the value of a research paper by these parameters.
What are SCI an IF?
SCI (Science Citation Index) and its companion publication JCR (Journal Citation Reports) are databases of the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI), Philadelphia, USA (http://www.isinet.com ). SCI and JCR are the most sought-after worldwide information source (both retrieval and dissemination) and are used for evaluation and comparison of scientific journals. All those papers that appear in SCI journals are considered to have an impact on the scientific advancement. The journal impact factor (IF) in a given year is the ratio of the number of times the citable papers published in the journal are cited to the sum of citable papers published by the journal in the preceding two years. Therefore, it is a measure of citation frequency for a particular year. The value of any scientific publication is assessed by its citation index and measured by its journal impact factor (IF).
Research papers in India
In the year 2001, the SCI covered 10 and the JCR covered 45 journals out of a total of more than five thousand science journals published from every part of the globe. India accounted for a pathetic about 0.3 per cent of the total science journals covered by SCI (source: SCI 2001 annual guide). National Institution of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NSTDS), Govt. of India recently published a report that the number of Indian journals indexed in SCI fell from about 40 at the end of the 1970's to 10 during 1997-99, out of some 600 journals. These ten journals are Current Science, Journal of Genetics, Journal of Biosciences, Indian Journal of Medical Research, Natural Medical Journal of India, Indian Journal of Chemistry (Section A), Indian Journal Chemistry (Section B), Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, Pramana-Journal of Physics, and Proceedings of Indian Academy of Sciences (Chemical Sciences). Hence a large number of journals published from India are not included in the SCI. Of the 45 Indian journals that find place in JCR on CD-ROM 2001, Current Science was the top ranking Indian journal with an IF of 0.600 in contrast to highest IF value of 46.233 (Annual Review of Immunology).
Pharmaceutical sciences publications scenario
India's record in pharmacy field is somewhere between poor an appalling. There is no SCI/JCR Indian pharmacy or pharmaceutical sciences journal. As SCI/JCR databases journals are considered for IF value, a large proportion of pharmaceutical sciences papers are being published in journals without impact factor. However, the number of papers in non-SCI journals is increasing over the years (NSTDS report). Very often it creates confusion among authors who publish in non-SCI journals. Indian pharmaceutical science researchers also publish their research work in non-SCI journals published from other countries. Some of these non-SCI foreign journals include: Acta Pharm., Acta Pharm. Turc., Boll. Chim. Farm., Int. Pharm. J., Saudi Pharm. J. As a result, in spite of steady rate of publications in non-SCI journals (both Indian and foreign), we are falling behind other countries (even neighbouring Asian) in terms of scientific (pharmacy field) out put. Table 1 shows a few reputed pharmacy SCI journals with their 2002 impact factors.
Table 1: Well recognized Pharmacy Journals with Impact Factor
| ISSN | Pharmacy Journals (abbreviated) | Impact Factor |
| 0168-3659 | J. Controlled Release | 2.626 |
| 0022-3549 | J. Pharm. Sci | 2.117 |
| 0928-0987 | Eur. J. Pharm. Sci | 1.842 |
| 0939-6411 | Eur. J. Pharm. and Biopharm | 1.503 |
| 0378-5173 | Int. J. Pharm. | 1.492 |
| 0363-9045 | Drug Dev. Ind. Pharm. | 0.557 |
| 0002-9459 | Am. J. Pharm. Educ. | 0.29 |
Apart from SCI and JCR databases, the coverage of papers in other secondary information databases viz. EMBASE, Index Medicus (online counterpart is MEDLINE), and BIOSIS is quite poor. ICMR-NIC has developed a bibliographic database called IndMED (http://www.indmed.nic.in) of more than 70 peer-reviewed Indian biomedical journals that includes the premier pharmacy journal Indian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. This initiative will make online free accessibility of Indian journals not covered by MEDLINE. Another way of worldwide acknowledgement of a paper is its intrinsic quality, since quality paper even from non-SCI journals may also indexed in SCI by self citation.
Any field of scientific activity has two aims - advancement of knowledge and improvement of ways of production to enhance the quality of life. Indian pharmaceutical research is at crossroads today. It has to improve its quality, and clearly one of the priorities is publishing the research work in SCI journals whether published from India or from abroad.
(The author is Selection Grade Lecturer in Pharmacy, Annamalai University, Annamalainagar 608 002, TN.) Email: cdl_scbasak@sancharnet.in