Qualitative Analysis of the Most Cited Publications from Leading Indian Medical Institutions

The most important responsibility of physicians is research - advancement of medical knowledge is the core on which the other responsibilities, patient care and research, are based. This study was planned to conduct a qualitative analysis of the major publications from the the country's leading medical institutions. We used Scopus to generate a list of total number of publications from the topmost institutions, the number of citations, and citations per article. We calculated the h-index, g-index, i-10 index, and h5-index for these institutions. A more detailed analysis was carried out for the top 20 most cited papers in each of the institutions. Only descriptive statistics were used. Among the top 10 medical institutions included, AIIMS, Delhi and PGIMER, Chandigarh were the top institutes, accounting for more publications and citations than the next eight institutions combined. The other institutions also managed to publish a large number of highly-cited papers. AIIMS was the leading institution when other indices were calculated. Among the most-cited articles, >80% had first/corresponding authors from outside India. A large number papers remained uncited, even after many years of publication. Uncited papers could be a result research conducted with the purpose of getting the numbers needed for promotion (NNP). Importance of collaborative research was seen to be an important factor when citations are considered. Even with the huge resource deficit, our institutes managed to publish a decent number of highly cited articles, which can be boosted if funding situation is improved.