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VMMC and Safdarjung
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208 2017 Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU | Published by Wolters Kluwer - Medknow
Original Article
Bibliometric evaluation of published
Indian research on Knowledge,
Attitude, and Practices
Sandeep Sachdeva, T. R. Sachdev1, Ruchi Sachdeva2
Abstract:
OBJECTIVE: Evaluation of knowledge, attitude, and practices (KAPs) based published Indian
research on selected parameters.
METHODOLOGY: A bibliometric analysis of Indian KAP research manuscript published in
journals indexed in PubMed for the last 2years and/or published in Indian Journal of Community
Medicine(IJCM) and Indian Journal of Public Health(IJPH) for the last 15years(year 20002014)
was undertaken under certain criteria.
RESULTS: PubMed (n = 196) revealed maximum KAP research undertaken from the states of
Karnataka(16.8%) followed by Delhi(9.6%), Maharashtra(9.1%), and more than two states(11.7%). There
was poor reflection with no publication of KAPbased research from the states of Chhattisgarh, Himachal
Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, and Rajasthan, in IJCM and IJPH journals. The geographical representation
of country through published manuscript in IJCM was slightly more diverse than IJPH and more than
onefourth manuscripts in IJPH were published from West Bengal only. It was evident that IJCM(n=71) has
published more KAP manuscripts than IJPH(n=47). Higher proportion of communitybased KAP research
was published in IJPH(80.8%) than IJCM(57.7%). Highest single research domain in PubMed indexed
journals was those related to oral cavity(14.2%) conducted by dental professionals while rest(85.8%)
could be largely ascribed to community physician/public health personnel, etc. The first research domain
was followed by family planning/contraceptives(6.1%), tobacco control(5.6%), and AIDSHIV(5.1%), for
the year 20132014. Highest KAPbased research domain of articles published in IJCM was those related
to family planning/contraceptives(10.0%) followed by AIDSHIV(8.5%) while it was tobacco(16.6%)
and AIDSHIV(14.5%) in IJPH. Number of authors/manuscript was slightly higher in journals indexed in
PubMed(4.7) than IJCM(3.8) and IJPH(3.7). The average page/manuscript was higher in PubMed(6.4)
indexed journals while it was similar in both Indian journal(IJCM[3.6] and IJPH[3.8]). Approximate time
incurred in decision announcement toward acceptance of KAP manuscript(20002014) by IJCM from
the date of submission was 7months(median) while for comparison purpose, it was 6months(median)
for a sample of articles published during 2015.Average citations per KAP document within 2years of
publication were 1.9(IJCM) and 1.2(IJPH), respectively, in Google scholar.
CONCLUSION: This bibliometric study, probably first of its kind in India, provides objective snap-
shot of diverse published research in the country that may also aid scholar to explore new avenues
of KAP especially non-communicable diseases in future. In-addition, postgraduate training could lay
emphasis on the use of bibliometrics.
Keywords:
measurement, systemic review
Introduction pattern, emerging trend and obsolesce of
publications, authorship, citation impact,
B
ibliometrics are quantitative technique and use of literature. It encompasses
of measuring output, mapping measurement of properties of documents
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the
and documentrelated processes. [1,2] The
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0
License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon How to cite this article: Sachdeva S, Sachdev TR,
the work non-commercially, as long as the author is credited Sachdeva R. Bibliometric evaluation of published Indian
research on Knowledge, Attitude, and Practices.
Indian J Health Sci Biomed Res 2017;10:208-15.
For reprints contact: reprints@medknow.com
[Downloaded free from http://www.ijournalhs.org on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, IP: 42.111.86.189]
Sachdeva, etal.: Bibliometric KAP study
word bibliometrics was coined by Pritchard in
1969,[3] and historically, it has evolved from statistical
bibliography, to bibliometrics to scientometrics
and informetrics to webometrics, and has become
instrumental specifically for scholarly communication
as well as library and information science. [4,5] The
Journal Citation Reports(JCR) was devised by Eugene
Garfield, who in 1955 proposed the idea of creating an
impact factor(IF) as a means to evaluate the importance
of scientific journals. Few years later, it was concretized
with the establishment of science citation index(SCI)
by Institute for Scientific Information(ISI, today Web
of Science by Thomson Reuters,(a profit company).[6]
The JCR was created by the SCI in 1975 as an annual
supplement to the IF and the citations received by a
journal.
Since the advent of SCI, three types of bibliometric
applications have arisen, namely, descriptive, relational,
and evaluative. Descriptive bibliometrics places
emphasis on the characteristic features of the document
while relational bibliometrics seeks to illuminate
relationships within research, such as cognitive structure
of research fields, emergence of new research fronts,
and national or international coauthorship patterns.
Evaluative bibliometrics seeks to assess the impact of
scholarly work and compares the relative contributions
of two or more individual or groups.[7,8] However, the
quality judgment on a research product can only be given
by peers and expert panel based on detailed insight into
content and nature of research.
Metrics range from simple publication or citation
counts to mathematical formulae which take into
account both the output and impact of researchers
work. The main bibliometric tools include Web of
Science, Scopus, Scientific publication information
retrieval system, MEDLINE(biomedical publications),
CiteSeer(computer and information science publication),
and Google scholar that provide automatic metrics for
individual researcher but have their own advantages
and limitations. Salient metrics include total number of
papers, total number of citations, IF, hindex(method of
measuring productivity and impact of academic work),
Egghes gindex(which gives more weight to highest
cited papers), ageweighted citation rate(accounts for
the age of the papers), measuring usage by readers,
quantifying value of online media communication,
exploring grammatical and syntactical structures of text,
and measuring term frequency.[9,10]
The bibliometrics analysis and citation management
tools and technique can be applied on any subject topic,
authors, articles, journals, institutions, universities and
country for scientific ranking, productivity, impact,
Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU - Volume 10, Issue 2, May-August 2017 209
collaboration, trend analysis, performance, and even
assist in decisionmaking toward allocation of research
funding.[11,12] However, quantitative performance metrics
have their own set of inherent limitations.
Knowledge refers to understanding of a given topic by a
group of people. Attitude refers to their feelings toward
the subject as well as any preconceived idea that they
may have toward it while practice refers to the ways in
which they demonstrate their knowledge and attitude
through their actions. Understanding these background
factors enable in tailoring the health and communication
program to address the needs of community, health staff,
researchers, program managers, or other stakeholders
more appropriately. With this insight, a bibliometric
evaluation of published Indian knowledge, attitude,
and practices(KAPs) research was undertaken through
PubMed, Indian Journal of Community Medicine(IJCM),
and Indian Journal of Public Health(IJPH).
Objectives
1. Bibliometric evaluation of published Indian KAP
research indexed in PubMed journals for the year
2013 and 2014
2. Bibliometric evaluation of KAP research published
in IJCM during the period 20002014
3. Bibliometric evaluation of KAP research published
in IJPH during the period 20002014.
Methodology
Online search engine PubMed, IJCM, and IJPH websites
were utilized and literature search was undertaken
using medical subject heading(MeSH) keywords
knowledge, attitude, belief, practices, India.
Other healthrelated search keywords used were KAP,
KABP, awareness, intention, willingness, perception,
behavior, skill, and compliance. Title and abstract
and/or full document were carefully screened for explicit
assessment of relevant keywords.
Objective 1
Considering feasibility, time frame of search restriction
in PubMed database was 2years, i.e.,January 2013
to December 2014, and a total of 924 titles in various
combinations of keywords were culled out by PubMed
search and 196(21.2%) suitable research manuscript were
shortlisted for this study.
Objective 2 and 3
Time frame of search restriction was 15years, i.e.,January
2000 to December 2014, so as to give focus on to these
important and historically trusted journals in the
country and also to enhance expected yield. During this
period, IJCM published volume number 25 (year 2000)
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Sachdeva, etal.: Bibliometric KAP study

to 39(year 2014) while IJPH published volume number
44(year 2000) to 58(year 2014) with release of four
issues(quarterly) per year by both journals without fail.
Atotal of 540 research titles/manuscripts were captured
during IJCM search and 71(13.1%) were included while
350 research titles/manuscript were captured during
IJPH search and 47(13.4%) were found suitable for
inclusion in present analysis such as original articles,
short communication, research brief, and letter to editor.
Collectively, these are referred to as manuscript or
documents in this study.
Inclusion criteria
1. Research study carried out in country with one of the
author(s) having an Indian address
2. Articles with assessment of at least two of the
characteristics of interest including MeSH keywords.
Exclusion criteria
1. Isolated knowledge/awareness or perception or
attitude/inclination/willingness or belief or practices/
behavior/skill/compliancebased published research
or prevalencebased research manuscripts along with
assessment of anyone of the above entity.
Selected information captured were journal name,
number of authors, place of research, study subjects,
study setting, number of pages, references, research
domain, and articles published per year, etc. Some of
the documents though listed were not available from
respective websites(archives) and were hand searched
in libraries or procured through personal contacts.
Citation analysis was undertaken for research manuscript
published in IJCM and IJPH(objective 2 and 3 only)
through Google scholar. All the citations per document
were manually screened and unrelated items excluded.
This information was derived in two formats: citations
occurring within 2years of publication of research and
total citations ascribed to a particular manuscript till
period of data collection. Based on this result, number of
research manuscript was categorized according to citation
and reflected according to research domain. Duplication
and anomaly if any were sorted out by mutual consent.
Some of the selected abovementioned information
was also captured from randomly selected 16 Indian
manuscript(eight original research articles and eight
letter to editors) published in any of the four issues
during 2015 in both IJCM and IJPH for comparison
purpose. Information regarding time interval between
manuscript submission by author and acceptance
was available for IJCM only, and hence, displayed
accordingly. During analysis, related topics were clubbed
under similar research domain yet an attempt has been
made to retain the uniqueness of research topic. Data
collection was carried out during AugustSeptember
2015 and analyzed using research manuscript/document
as a base unit by computing descriptive statistics.

Table1: Geographical area of published Indian KAP research manuscript

States/Union Territory PUBMED (n=196) IJCM (n=71) IJPH (n=47)
N(%) N(%) N(%)
AndhraPradesh 07(3.5) 03(4.2) 0
Bihar/Jharkhand 02(1.0) 01(1.4) 03(6.3)
Chandigarh 05(2.5) 05(7.1) 02(4.2)
Delhi 19(9.6) 10(14.2) 04(8.5)
Gujarat 06(3.0) 05(7.1) 01(2.1)
Haryana 06(3.0) 04(5.7) 02(4.2)
Maharashtra 18(9.1) 06(8.4) 06(12.7)
Puducherry 05(2.5) 01(1.4) 01(2.1)
Punjab 02(1.0) 05(7.1) 02(4.2)
Uttar Pradesh/Uttarakhand 14(7.1) 04(5.7) 06(12.7)
West Bengal 09(4.5) 06(8.5) 12(25.5)
North Eastern States 06(3.0) 02(2.8) 03(6.3)
Karnataka 33(16.8) 10(14.2)
Kerala 09(4.5) 02(2.8)
Madhya Pradesh 04(2.0) 03(4.2)
Tamil Nadu 09(4.5) 02(2.8)
Jammu and Kashmir 03(1.5)
Rajasthan 05(2.5)
Chhattisgarh 02(1.0)
Himachal Pradesh 04(2.0)
Odisha 05(2.5) 02(4.2)
Goa 0 01(2.1)
Atleast 2 or more states 23(11.7) 01(1.4) 02(4.2)

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Table2: Research domain of published Indian KAP Results

articles, PUBMED
Research domain N(%) PubMed search revealed 196 suitable manuscripts
Oral Health/oral cancer/avulsed tooth 28(14.2) published in 39 indexed journals largely of Indian
Forensic Odontology/DentalImplants/floss/ origin, authored by medical, dental, nursing, and other
adhesive/orofacial injuries
professionals. Some of the journals, especially ejournals,
Contraceptives/FP/Population control 12(6.1)
were free, while rest had definitive article processing
Tobacco 11(5.6)
charges and were available through open access system.
AIDS HIV 10(5.1)
Reproductive Health/Sexuality 08(4.0)
Indicative list of journals that have published more
Hygiene/Hand washing 06(3.0)
than three Indian KAP articles during reference period
Pharmacovigilance 06(3.0) were Asian Pac J Cancer Prev, J Clin Diagn Res, Indian
Bio Medical Waste 05(2.5) J Lepr, Perspect Clin Res, Ann Med Health Sci Res, Int
Malaria 05(2.5) J Gynaecol Obstet, J Dent Educ, J Health Popul Nutr,
Newborn Care/IMNCI 05(2.5) Nurs J India, J Trop Pediatr, IJCM, IJPH, etc.
Maternal Health/MTP/Birth preparedness 05(2.5)
Ethics 04(2.0) Table 1 reflects geographical areawise KAP research
Leprosy 04(2.0) undertaken according to States/Union territory in
Tuberculosis/DOTS/MDR 04(2.0) India. PubMed revealed maximum research undertaken
Seizure First Aid/Basic life support 04(2.0) from the states of Karnataka (16.8%) followed by
Cancer Screening 04(2.0) Delhi(9.6%), Maharashtra(9.1%), and more than
VaccineCervical cancer/Hep B/Polio 04(2.0) two states (11.7%). There was poor reflection with no
Blood Donation 03(1.5) publication of KAPbased research from the states of
Leishmaniasis 03(1.5) Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir,
Cardiovascular Disease/Stroke Life Style Factors 03(1.5) and Rajasthan, in both IJCM and IJPH. The geographical
Research 03(1.5) representation of country through published articles in
Fixed Dose Combination Drugs 02(1.0) IJCM was slightly more diverse than IJPH and more than
Hypertension 02(1.0) onefourth manuscripts in IJPH were published from
Influenza Vaccine 02(1.0) West Bengal only. This could be attributed to publication
Menstruation 02(1.0) policy of journals and/or choice of authors.
Pesticide 02(1.0)
AYUSH 02(1.0) Table2 depicts spectrum of research domain of
Anti Rabies Management 02(1.0)
KAPbased manuscripts published in journals indexed
Infant and Young Child Feeding/Child Rearing 02(1.0)
in PubMed. Highest research domain was those
Information technology/Mobile Application For 02(1.0)
Mgt Sick Newborn
related to oral cavity(14.2%) conducted by dental
Gender Preference and Sex Determination 01(0.5)
professionals while rest(85.8%) research undertaken
Radiation protection 01(0.5) could be largely ascribed to community physician/
Breast Cancer 01(0.5) public health/anthropologist/social scientist, nursing
Blood Banks 01(0.5) personnel, and small proportion by clinicians,
Otitis Media 01(0.5) pharmacologist, home science/nutrition expert. The
Fruits And Vegetables 01(0.5) first research domain was followed by family planning/
Eye Donation 01(0.5) contraceptives(6.6%), tobacco control(5.6%), and
Genetic Testing And Deafness 01(0.5) AIDSHIV(5.1%), etc., for the year 20132014.
Glaucoma 01(0.5)
Injection Safety 01(0.5) Table3 depicts research domain of manuscript published
Insulin 01(0.5) in IJCM and IJPH. Highest KAPbased research domain
Lymphatic Filariasis 01(0.5) of manuscript published in IJCM was those related to
Lathyrism 01(0.5) family planning/contraceptives(10.0%) followed by
Needle Stick Injury 01(0.5) AIDSHIV(8.5%) while it was tobacco control(16.6%)
Nutrition 01(0.5) and AIDSHIV(14.5%) in IJPH.
Occupational Health 01(0.5)
Diarrhea 01(0.5) Table4 depicts study setting and diverse study subjects
Latrine/open defecation 01(0.5) upon whom KAP research was undertaken. Higher
Radio Active Waste Management 01(0.5) proportion of communitybased KAP research was
Disaster Management 01(0.5) published in IJPH than IJCM(80.8% vs. 57.7%).
Ergonomics 01(0.5)
Evidence Based Practice 01(0.5) Table 5 depicts specific characteristics with regard to
Miscellaneous 18(9.1) authors, pages, and references per document and time
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Table3: Research domain of published Indian of references/article allowed is directly related to

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice manuscript in type of manuscript, strength/detail of writeup, word
Indian Journal of Community Medicine and Indian limit restriction, and/or number of pages per articles
Journal of Public Health
and should be visualized accordingly. These journals
Research domain IJPH, n(%) IJCM, n(%)
prescribe limits of six authors and 30 references in original
Contraceptive/family planning/ 3(6.3) 7(10.0)
population control/lactational
articles, up to six authors and ten references in short/brief
amenorrhea/Epill/abortion research article, and up to four authors and five references
AIDSHIV 7(14.8) 6(8.5) in letter to editor.
New born care/IMNCI/MCH 4(8.5) 4(5.7)
Menstruation/dysmenorrhea 1(2.1) 4(5.7) Approximate time incurred in decision announcement
Sex determination/female 1(2.1) 4(5.7) toward acceptance of KAP manuscript (200014) by
feticide/gender preference IJCM from the date of submission by authors was
Reproductive health/sexuality/sex 1(2.1) 4(5.7) 7months(median) while for comparison purpose, it
Health care/system/mobile health clinic 1(2.1) 3(4.2) was 6months(median) for eight randomly selected
B.M.W 1(2.1) 3(4.2) any original Indian research articles published in any
Antirabies management 1(2.1) 3(4.2) of the four IJCM issues during 2015, a sign of slightly
Breastfeeding 2(4.2) 3(4.2) better and efficient communication from all concerned
Tobacco 8(17.0) 3(4.2)
parties(authoreditorreviewer) in recent year
Bird/swine flue 2(4.2) 1(1.4)
still there is scope of ample improvement with regard
Tetanus/OPV/influenza vaccine 3(6.3) 1(1.4)
to early decision making and communication. Time to
Dengue/malaria 4(8.5) 1(1.4)
publication from acceptance is yet another parameter
Hygiene/hand washing 3(6.3) 1(1.4)
Diabetes/hypertension 3(4.2)
that needs urgent attention.
Body image weight control 2(2.8)
Diarrhea 2(2.8)
Average citations per KAP manuscript within 2years
Anemia/nutrition 2(2.8)
of publication were 1.9(IJCM) and 1.2(IJPH) while the
Blood donation 1(1.4) total citation range was also similar in both the journals
Birth registration 1(1.4) as shown in Table6.
Bone and joint pain 1(1.4)
Cataract surgery 1(1.4) Discussion
Eye donation 1(1.4)
Health hazard of dyes 1(1.4) The present bibliometric analysis, probably first of its
Iodine deficiency disorder 1(1.4) kind, was undertaken to evaluate published Indian KAP
Research 1(1.4) research manuscripts. This study provides a snapshot
Road safety 1(1.4) of the concept under consideration while needless to
Thalassemia 1(1.4) say there are still larger number of other Indian KAP
Filariasis 1(1.4) research published beyond the indexing site and journal
Mental health 1(1.4) limits but were outside the scope of present analysis. The
Dental health 1(1.4) other limitations include high heterogeneity of studies
Universal precaution 1(1.4) itself. In spite of authors best efforts, it is conceded that
National Disease Control Program/ 2(4.2)
underrecording of KAP articles cannot be ruled out
DOTS
I.C.D.S 1(2.1)
and the study results should be visualized from wider
Selfmedication 1(2.1)
and positive perspective. Both the renowned, reputed,
Zoonosis 1(2.1) and trusted Indian journals have demonstrated certain
IJCM = Indian Journal of Community Medicine, IJPH = Indian Journal of Public strengths, weakness, and similarities with no intention
Health, B.M.W = Biomedical waste of authors to rank these journals on current topic.

interval in acceptance decision announcement with regard
to IJCM. Number of average authors/documents was
comparatively higher in journals indexed in PubMed(4.7)
than IJCM(3.8) and IJPH(3.7) probably indicating toward
technical collaboration, team effort, and/or gifted/
honorary authorship. The average page/manuscript was
higher in PubMed(6.4) journal while it was similar in
both Indian journals(IJCM[3.6] and IJPH[3.8]). Average
number of references/manuscript was found to be similar
in both the journals, 9.3(IJCM) and 9.1(IJPH). Number
212 Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU - Volume 10, Issue 2, May-August 2017
With maturing of Indian research environment,
KAPbased research domain has come to a stage
of super saturation and fatigue with some of the
other established Indian journals having policy not
to entertain KAPbased articles. On a pitfall, this
has also led to proliferation of multiple poor quality
privately owned journals with inclusion of all varieties
of articles on payment basis for publications within
days of submission. However, both these historically
respected Indian journals have provided space
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Table4: Study settings and type of study subjects in published Indian Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice
manuscripts
Characteristics PubMed, n(%) IJCM, n(%) IJPH, n(%)
Settings
Community/schools 98(50.0) 41(57.7) 38(80.8)
Hospital/institution(med/dental/nursing college) 87(44.3) 27(38.5) 7(14.5)
Health center/dispensary/DOTS clinic 11(05.6) 3(4.2) 2(04.1)
Study subjects
Women/married/pregnant/ANC/lactating mother 28(14.2) 10(14.2) 10(20.8)
Public/adults/household/community member/couples/elderly 26(13.2) 14(19.7) 8(16.6)
Dentist/dental residents 25(12.7)
Patients(general/TB/epilepsy/malaria/HIV/PLHIV/cancer/leprosy/diabetic/schizophrenia) 21(10.7) 6(08.5) 2(4.1)
Adolescent/school students/socially handicap children 19(9.6) 11(15.7) 9(18.7)
Doctor/physician/OBG/pediatrician/Mental Health Prof. 17(8.6) 3(4.2) 1(2.0)
Medical and paramedical worker/nurse 20(10.2) 9(12.8) 4(8.5)
Medical/dental/nursing students 8(4.0) 6(8.5)
Female sex workers/MSM/truck driver 2(1.0) 2(2.8) 2(4.1)
Miscellaneous(welder, dyeing and printing, agriculture worker, class4 employee, 29(14.7) 10(14.0) 11(15.4)
smoker, scrap dealer, blood donor, pharmacist, physiotherapy students, university
students, physical instructor, food handlers, males, AYUSH, PRI, Ethical Committee
members, parents/caretaker, School teachers/personnel Village health worker/ASHA/
AWW/TBA multiple stakeholders)
IJCM = Indian Journal of Community Medicine, IJPH = Indian Journal of Public Health

Table5: Selected characteristics of published Indian KAP research manuscript

Characteristics PUBMED IJCM IJPH
No. of average authors/KAP manuscript(meanS.D) 4.7(2.3) 3.8(2.1) 3.7(1.4)
Median 4.0 3.0 4.0
Range 115 117 16
Status of authors in 16 randomly selected Indian manuscript published in the year 4.4(3.9) 3.7(1.3)
2015 for comparison purpose(meanS.D)
Median 4.0 4.0
Range 118 16
Document length[number of pages/KAP manuscript](meanS.D) 6.4(2.6) 3.6(1.4) 3.8(1.5)
Median 6.0 3.0 4.0
Range 220 28 26
Status of pages in 16 randomly selected Indian manuscript published in the year 4.1(2.2) 4.5(2.6)
2015 for comparison purpose(meanS.D)
Median 4.5 5.0
Range 18 18
Average no. of references/KAP manuscript(meanS.D) 9.3(5.3) 9.1(5.6)
Median 8.0 7.0
Range 330 028
Status of references in 16 randomly selected Indian manuscript published in the 13.9(9.0) 13.8(10.5)
year 2015(meanS.D)
Median 16 14
Range 229 138
Approximate time(months) incurred in decision of acceptance of KAP 09
manuscript(200014) by IJCM from the date of submission by authors
Median 07
Range 324
Approximate time(months) incurred in decision of acceptance of selected any 07
08 original Indian research articles published in IJCM in 2015(mean)
Median 06
Range 315

to accommodate such type of research. Still, KAP Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, and
research publication from Empowered Action Group Uttarakhand) was underrepresented(15.9%) in both
states(Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Indian journals considering their total population

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Table6: Citation analysis of KAP research manuscript published in IJCM and IJPH
Variable IJCM IJPH
Average citation per KAP manuscript within 2year of 1.9 1.2
publication
Range(citation/document within 2year of publication) 010 08
Range of citation/research manuscript(n) 610 68
Menstruation=02 IMNCI=01
Bio Medical Waste=02 35
AIDS HIV=01 Tobacco=02
New Born Care=01 AIDS HIV=01
Hypertension=01 Hand washing=01
35 02
Reproductive health=02 (All others)
AIDS HIV=01
Bio Medical Waste=01
Breastfeeding=01
Child Health=01
Contraceptives=01
Health System=01
Hygiene=01
Menstruation=01
Tobacco Control=01
02
(All others)
Total average citations per manuscript from publication 20.2 9.9
till present study period
Highest cited KAP manuscript within 2year of publication A Dasgupta etal., 2008(Menstruation) J Venkatachalam
V Mathur etal., 2011(B.M.W.) etal., 2011(IMNCI)
MC Yadavanaver etal., 2010(B.M.W.)
B Unnikrishanan etal., 2010(AIDS HIV)

contribution(45%) and even on the parameter of submission site at www.journalonweb.com reports

availability of medical colleges(22.5%, 91/404) in these
states as of 2014.
The present study provides objective analysis of
Indian KAPbased research undertaken in the
sociopoliticaldemographiceconomic and cultural
scenario at one end; temporal distribution; scale
of researchers technical capacity, motivation, and
limiting context at other end. The evaluation of
Indian KAP research manuscripts could be rated from
excellent to fair. With the intention to encourage and
motivate authors, Indian journals publish articles in
shorter format, though occasionally, even at the cost
of quality. This could be one possibility while other
could be to accommodate more suitable articles for
publication in view of spurt in large submission. Delay
in decisionmaking and communication results in
frustration, despair, and even anger among submitting
authors. Under current circumstances, both the journals
should increase the frequency of annual publications
from current(quarterly) to 6(bimonthly) or even
12(monthly) issues per year to retain and expand user
base. Nevertheless, there is a definitive risk of decline
in readership of these journals in future as discussed
elsewhere.[13] However, both the journal manuscript
acceptance rate of manuscript of less than 10% only, a
proxy indicator of quality. The quality concerns were
though similarly corroborated by an evaluation study on
IJCM regarding adherence to strengthening the reporting
of observational studies in epidemiology(STROBE)
statement.[14] This study revealed that only 46%(37/80)
articles addressed 1215 items of the STROBE checklist
out of the desired 22 items.
The research environment and culture in India have
definitively evolved and the wheels of change have
started rolling. Arecent study of PubMed and IndMed
database indicated that public health research output
increased by 42%(n=474 in 2000 to n=817 in 2010)
in last decade from India.[15] At one end, study rigor
has improved; while at other end, peerreview quality
with critical comments on study methodology has been
galvanized for better. This process could be supplemented
by bibliometric analysis since referee(s) review could also
be marred by educational background, research interest,
professional experience, human element of prejudice,
bias, conflict of interest, inconsistencies, contradictions,
and oversight; in addition, they could be time and cost
intensive.[16] On literature review, average author per
article was 2.79 in Slovenian Journal of Public Health, 4.04

214 Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU - Volume 10, Issue 2, May-August 2017
[Downloaded free from http://www.ijournalhs.org on Wednesday, May 31, 2017, IP: 42.111.86.189]
Sachdeva, etal.: Bibliometric KAP study
in European Journal of Public Health, and 3.08 in Health
and Population: Perspective and Issues journal[17,18] while
in our study, it was 3.8(IJCM) and 3.7(IJPH).
In the present study analysis, average KAPbased
research citation within 2years of publication was similar
in both Indian journals, 1.9(IJCM) and 1.2(IJPH), and
seems to be corroborating well with SCImago Journal
Rank(SJR) of IJCM(2014) with 1.02 cites/document
and 0.81 cites/document for IJPH(2014) in the last
2 years. There were 27 (38.0%) and 17 (36.1%) KAP
manuscripts published in IJCM and IJPH, respectively,
which could not attract any citation within 2year of
their respective publication excluding manuscript
published during 2013/14. However, these manuscripts
with zero-2years citation could also garner an average
total citations of 10.3(IJCM) and 6.8(IJPH) till period of
data collection. Only two KAP manuscripts published
in IJCM(2.8%) and(4.2%) IJPH could not attract even
one citation. These results could be due to popularity of
specific articles, feasibility(ease) factor for undertaking
research, access issues, time factor, citation history and
age of article, reporting bias plus, we did not evaluated
authors selfcitation pattern. It is worth mentioning that
citation of scientific paper normally starts 1 or 2years
after publication and reaches peak after about 10years.[19]
Conclusion
The present study may add impetus to journal and
scholars in future to explore new avenues of KAPbased
research(especially noncommunicable diseases, etc.)
with added dimension of quality. Bibliometric analysis
has been applied to many public healthrelated topics
and journals in global and Indian context, but literature
on present topic is not available for comparison purpose.
Future research on important public health topics could
be carried out to bring out a more comprehensive scenario
in country which could aid in better policy decisions. In
addition, training programs and postgraduate student
curriculum could also lay emphasis on acquiring skills
for effective use of bibliometrics as a component of
research methodology.
Financial support and sponsorship
Nil.
Conflicts of interest
There are no conflicts of interest.
Indian Journal of Health Sciences and Biomedical Research KLEU - Volume 10, Issue 2, May-August 2017 215
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