Thomson Reuters announces Indian global research excellence awards

New Delhi: Eight of India's leading scientists were honoured today for their groundbreaking research and influential contribution to global research and development at the ''Thomson Reuters Research Excellence: India Research Front Awards 2009.''

The awards have been instituted by the healthcare and science business of Thomson Reuters.

The awards cover four research fronts, a group of highly cited papers, referred to as "core papers," in a specialised topic defined by a cluster analysis. Research fronts are assigned to the 22 broad fields based on the field of the most frequently occurring journal in the front.

The eight awardees were presented with the accolade after their research was analysed by Thomson Reuters using its 'research front methodology' to assess their level of influence on specific scientific fields.

Research front methodology looks at patterns of intense communication between scientists and is compiled, using citation analysis of a list of highly cited papers, defined as the top 1 per cent of papers in each of the 22 disciplines.

Discovering how these highly cited works are related and determining how often these papers have been jointly cited (frequency of co-citation of the two highly cited papers) is achieved by 'essential science indicators' (ESI), and is referred to as Research Front analysis.

The ESI is based on their papers published in Thomson Reuters -indexed journals from January 1998 through 31 August 2008. This tool can assist in identifying areas where important work is being conducted and where the scientific community is focusing its attention.

Based on the findings, the four research front areas where Indian scientists have had greatest emphasis and world-class influence are:

Research Front #1751

• Professor Aniruddha B Pandit, Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai, Maharashtra and
  
• Dr Parag Ratnakar Gogate, University Institute of Chemical Technology, University of Mumbai, Maharashtra

For their contribution to research into advanced oxidation processes and techniques. 

Research Front #6810

• Dr. R Panneerselvam, Department of Botany, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu
  
• Dr. Gopi Ragupathi, Department of Botany, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu
  
• Dr. Abdul Jaleel Cheruth, Department of Botany, Annamalai University, Tamil Nadu

For their contribution to research into antioxidant metabolism and defence system in higher plants.

Research Front #7435

• Dr. GPS Raghava, Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh
  
• Dr. Manoj Bhasin, Bioinformatics Centre, Institute of Microbial Technology (IMTECH), Chandigarh

For their contribution to research into MHC class I binding peptides, using SVMHC.

Research Front #9007

• Dr. Ayyappanpillai Ajayaghosh, National Institute for Interdisciplinary Science and Technology (NIIST), Trivandrum

For his contribution to research into chirality-sensing supramolecular systems.

The awards ceremony held at New Delhi's Le Meridien is part of a series of Asia Pacific Research Days hosted by Thomson Reuters. These events recognise research excellence in countries and regions demonstrating they are leading the world through innovation in their respective fields. Similar events have been held in Australia (2008), China (2008), South Korea (2007), Japan (2007, 2004), Taiwan (2006) and India (2006).

The guests-of-honour were Dr. Rajagopala Chidambaram, principal scientific adviser to the government of India and Prof. Deepak Pental, vice chancellor, University of Delhi. The event was attended by more than 150 of the awardees' industry peers from leading research institutions and libraries, and members of the government and policy institutions in India.

''India has become an important contributor to the global research community -- and the steadfast pursuit of scientific discovery by these eight award winners certainly bears testimony to this," Said Wong Woei Fuh, commercial director, Asia Pacific, Thomson Reuters.

He "At Thomson Reuters, we understand the importance of trusted information, be it scientific literature or citation indexing data, to help the research community accelerate research, discovery and innovation, and make better decisions faster. Our methodology has helped Indian researchers identify the fields where they are taking the global lead and making a significant contribution. We hope to continue working closely with India's institutions to help them identify research excellence.''

The listings are confined to those nations, out of a pool of 147, which published at least 10,000 papers across all fields during the period. Countries are ranked by three separate measures: total citations, number of papers, and cites per paper. For articles with multiple authors representing different nations, each listed nation receives full, not fractional, citation credit for the given paper.

According to the ESI, India is ranked 20 by total citations and ranked 12 by number of papers respectively in the annual listing of Top 20 countries in all fields from 1998-21 August 2008. This is presented by ScienceWatch.com, the bi-monthly newsletter by Thomson Reuters for the international research community.