A quantitative analysis of book reviews published in "Current Science": 2002–2005

This article presents results of the analysis of 325 book reviews published in Current Science during 2002 to 2005. The analysis shows that around 60% books were original works produced by single, double or multiple authors. The rest were collected works including two journals, corporate works, and a translation. The documents reviewed comprised mostly monographs (90%) followed by annual reviews and others. The largest number of documents reviewed belong to pure sciences (73%), followed by applied sciences (24%), and others (3%). Of the documents reviewed, 52.62% were published abroad and the rest 47.38% in India. Books containing 151 to 350 pages accounted for about 53% of the books. It is noticed that the number of books reviewed per year in Current Science varies from 60 to more than 100. Of the books reviewed, 71 were published from Delhi, 27 from Hyderabad, 24 each from New Jersey and Basel, 21 from New York, and the rest from other places. Publishers responsible for bringing out 321 books (publishers not mentioned in four cases) total 124. Birkhauser Verlag and Princeton University accounted for 26 books each, University Press (India) Ltd 24, Annual Review Inc. 18, MIT Press 13, Springer Verlag 12 books, and others less than 10 books. Prices were not mentioned in about 33% book reviews, possibly because the books did not provide the information. About 47% books were above the price range of Rs 1000. The minimum price of a book was found to be Rs 35 and maximum Rs 14,850. A large number of scientists shouldered the responsibility of reviewing books, foremost amongst them being C. P. Rajendran, M. S. Swaminathan, T. J. Pandian, S. Arunachalam and K. R. Rao.