LIS journals in India: Current status and some improvement measures

Abstract

The paper identifies the present status of journal publishing in India in the field of library & information science. Identification of journals were made by consulting various sources. The characteristics of the journals have been studied on various parameters like number of years of existence, type of publisher, accessibility, references and citation characteristics, etc. Of the total 72 identified journals, it was observed that almost 70% journals started their publication from 2000 onwards. About 81% journals are available on subscription basis. Print as well as online format for dissemination of research have been adopted by 59% journals, however, 30% journals are still available only in print form. It is seen that private or profit-making (59%) organizations are more interested to publish LIS journals than non-profit making organizations (41%). One of the major drawbacks of Indian LIS journals is there poor visibility and limited coverage in various bibliographical databases. More than 54% journals are not indexed in any important bibliographic database and only 6 journals are indexed in LISA, LISTA or ILSA. The citation statistics of these journals are not satisfactory as 42 journals did not receive any citations for their articles published during 2011-2013. At the end, the study suggests a few measures for improving the quality of journal in LIS domain.