DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF PUBLICATIONS OF THE ANIMAL SCIENTISTS (including FISHERIES) OF THE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, BANGALORE

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1 Annals of Library Science and Documentation 198, (1-), 0- DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF PUBLICATIONS OF THE ANIMAL SCIENTISTS (including FISHERIES) OF THE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, BANGALORE M.K. STANLEY College of Fisheries Mangalore Publication lists from the annual reports of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore for the years to were analysed to determine the distribution pattern of scientific publications of the animal scientists (including fisheries) of the UAS. The analysis revealed that the contributions have largely appeared elsewhere rather than in the domestic journal, Mysore journal of Agricultural Sciences. INTRODUCTION Encyclopaedia Britannica defines agricultural sciences as dealing with the aims and problems of farm production, including soil cultivation, crop growing and harvesting, animal husbandry, and to some extent, the processing of plant and animal products to a marketable stage [1]. The base for productive and prosperous agriculture in any country is research. The phenomenal progress recorded in agricultural production in the developed countries is a direct result of the systematic research work that has been done in the higher institutions of agricultural learning, in the respective countries. Agricultural education, research or service organisations can be effective only when they are dynamic, organically integral part of the agricultural process of the country in question. There is also a new awareness that the fruits of the university research and development activity have little economic value unless they are systematically harvested in the market place. THE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES, BANGALORE at Hebbal and Dharwar, the Veterinary College at Hebbal, and 4 research stations spread over the Karnataka state from the state government. Later, the Marine Products Processing Training Center at Mangalore was also transferred. This center formed the nucleus for the College of Fisheries established in 199 at Mangalore, to provide degree level training in fisheries. The Agricultural Engineering Institute was established in the same year at Raichur, to impart diploma lavel education in agricultural engineering. A Home Science College was started in 1974 at the Dharwar Campus for a rural-biased home science education for women. With the basic philosophy of the UAS being integration of teaching, research and extension programmes, besides research scientists, there is an active involvement of teachers and postgraduate students also in the research projects of the university, contributing to positive improvement in research output. In the fulfilment of its objective of promotion of agriculture through dissemination of latest knowledge of practical value, the UAS embarked on a systematic publication programme right from its inception in 195. A Publications Division was organised to promote publication and dissemination of information in the triple aspects of agricultural improvement work, viz., teaching, research and extension. Three periodicals being published by the UAS are: 1. Mysore journal of Agricultural Sciences (MjAS), a major primary channel of research communication, published quarterly since 197; The University of Agricultural Sciences (UAS) started functioning from October 1, 195. Current Research, a fortnightly, published with the transfer of the College of Agriculture since 197. Besides a feature article, 0 Ann Lib Sci Doc

2 DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF PUBLICATIONS contains research news of interest to extension workers, and short communications;. Krishi Vijnana, is a landmark in the publicationactivity of the UAS. It is a Kannada quarterly meant to enlighten farmers, extension personnel and general public, on the principles underlying new agricultural technology, so as to inculcate in item the habit of scientific thinking about their agricultural practices and programmes. In addition, there are several non-serial publications in English and Kannada being issued from time to time []. WHY SCIENTISTS WRITE Scientific communication includes full spectrum of activities associated with the production, dissemination and use of information from the time a scientist gets the idea for his research until the information about the results of this research is accepted as a constituent of scientific knowledge. Communicability has become a salient feature of a scientific product, since its recognition by the peers as a unique contribution is essential in establishing a scientist's success in science. The scientists of the UAS are no exception to this. SCOPE In this paper an attempt has been made to find out how the research information originating from the animal laboratories and fish ponds of the UAS are finding an outlet into the scientific world at large, and which are these channels. MATERIAL FOR ANALYSIS The data for the present study is collected from the annual reports of the UAS for the years from to Each annual report contains a faculty-wise list of publications of the UAS scientists published during the year under review. Table 1 gives the details of such publications from to Table 1: Year-wise and discipline-wise distribution of papers Discipline Total Anatomy Anim. Genet. Breed Anim. Nutr. Aquat. BioI Aquaculture Fish. BioI. Fish. Microbiol. Fish. Oceanogr. Hydrography Inland Fish Obstet. Gynecol. Parasitology Pharmacology Physiology Surgery =- -=- : _ Total: Vol Nos 1- March-June 198 1

3 STANLEY ANALYSIS Authorship pattern A total of 17 papers have been published by the animal scientists of the UAS during the years from to Table shows the authorship pattern of these publications. Bibliographic forms of communication channels 17 papers have been published in 5 serial and non-serial publications. Table shows the distribution of papers according to different bibliographic forms. Table : Bibliographic forms of documents Table : Authorship pattern Bibl. Forms Nos. No. of papers Authors No. of papers Periodicals 5 11 Single author Two authors Three authors More than three authors Veterinary sciences and fisheries being applied sciences involve many other associated disciplines and require a team work. The concept of independent and isolated research does not seem to have much value in the present day. This is evidenced in the present study also. The author-wise analysis shows that only 47 papers are by individual authors whereas 19 papers are joining ventures. 47 Proceedings of Conf., 18 Congr., Symp., Seminars etc Others 1 1 From Table it is clear that the major channel of communication is the scientific periodical accounting for 5.9%. Proceedings of the conferences, congresses, symposia and seminars, etc., form the second highest group (7.7%) followed by non-serial, miscellaneous publications like souvenirs, miscellany etc. (18.4%). Periodical publications Table 4 gives the year-wise distribution of papers published in each of the 5 journals. 9 Table 4: Journal and Year-wise distribution of papers SI. No Journal Total 1. Acarol. Newsl Agric. Wastes 1 1. Aquaculture Centaur Curro Res Curro Sci Dairy Guide 1 8. Experientia 1 1 Ann Lib Sci Doc

4 DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF PUBLICATIONS I Fmr.J Fishing Chimes Indian Fmg Indian J. Acarol Indian J. Anim. Rep Indian J. Anim. Sci. 15. Indian J. Fish Indian J. Mar. Sci Indian J. Pharmacol. 18. Indian Vet. J Janapriya Vijnana 0. J.lndl. Fish. Soc. India 1. J. Mar. BioI. Ass. India. J. Pharo Med. Sci 1 1. Kerala J. Vet. Sci Krishi Varthe Livestock Adviser Mahasagar - Bull. Nat, Inst. Oceanogr Milcow 1 8. Mysore J. Agric. Sci Mysore Vyavasaya Patrika Poultry Adviser Poultry Guide. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci Seafd. Export J Shipping & Mar. Indust. J Veterinarian Total ~ Vol Nos 1- Marchj une 198

5 STANLEY Foreign vs India journals Of the 5 journals only 5 are foreign journals with 5 papers. Remaining 0 Indian journals cover the rest of 11 papers. This shows that majority of the scientists prefer Indian journals to publish their papers. This may be due tocost involved in the preparation of manuscripts for foreign journals; All journals with at least two papers are listed in Table 5. Journals with only one paper are given at the end as a single group in order to avoid unduly long list. Of the 11 papers, Mysore journal of Agricultural Sciences tops the list with papers (18.1%) followed by Livestock Adviser with 19 papers (15.7%) and Indian Veterinary journal with 1 papers (9.9%). compulsory membership requirement from Productivity of journals the author/s; In order to measure the productivity of these page charges; 5 journals, the 11 papers were divided into three groups of 40 papers each. The number postage involved In foreign correspon- of journals under each group is given in Table dence.. These prerequisites are not rigidly observed by the Indian journals []. Table : Productivity of journals Ranking of journals Table 5 gives a ranked list of journals according to the number of papers published. Table 5: Ranked list of journals S.No. No. of papers No. of Jrl. Average Mysore J. Agric. Sci Livestock Adviser Indian Vet. J. Veterinarian Curro Res. Indian J. Anim. Rep. Indian J. Mar. Sci Dairy Guide Kerala J. Vet Sci. Milcow Indian J. Acarol Indian J. Anim. Sci. Indian J. Pharmocol. Janapriya Vijnana J. Inld, Fish. Soc. India J. Mar. Biol. Ass. India Poultry Guide Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. 17 journals each It is observed from Table that the first group of 41 papers are published in only two journals, signifying their high rate of productivity. The second group of 41 papers have appeared in journals while the third group of 9 papers are scattered through 7 journals. The average productivity of each journal in the first group is 0.5 papers whereas it has decreased considerably to 1.44 in the third group. Publication pattern in MjAS The MJAS publishes papers under four heads, viz., plant Sciences, Animal Sciences, Fisheries Sciences and Social Sciences. Table 7 gives the details of the publication pattern of MJAS from 1980 to The publication pattern shows that the plant sciences are given more importance over the animal sciences in the MJAS. In the present study it is in the ratio of ::1. 4 Ann Lib ~ci Doc

6 DISTRIBUTION PATTERN OF PUBLICATIONS Table 7: Paper distribution pattern in MIAS Year ==========~~~~~~======= Vol. Nos. Pl. Sci Anim. Sci. Soc. Sci Total (Incl. Fish ScL) Total Table 8: Distribution of animal science papers in MIAS Year Vol. NOi Original UAS Based on theses Non-UAS Total Total MIAS vs Animal Reports The present study reveals that out of 11 journal papers listed in the UAS annual reports only 8 papers are found in the two of the UAS journals i.e., MIAS with papers and Current Research with papers. The remaining 9 papers are published elsewhere. It is of interest to note that the number of papers published in the MJAS do not correlate with the number of papers listed in the annual reports as could be seen from Table 8. The annual reports from 1980 to 1984 listed only papers as published in MJAS whereas actual analysis of MJAS of the same Vol Nos 1- Marchj unc 198 period yielded 7 papers of which were based on the theses of the authors. CONCLUSION Since the annual report is an official document depicting the productivity and growth of an organisation, it is desirable that the editorial office of the MJAS takes cognisance of this disparity. However, because of the lesser coverage given to the animal sciences in MJAS, an undesirable consequence is seen. The results of the scientific research carried out in the UAS are mostly published elsewhere, and are morc accessible to the scientists who have S

7 STANLEY access to these journals than they are within the university. A kind of intellectual migration is observed. Or, could this be termed as "manuscript drain?" ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The assistance of Shri K S Udupa, Associate Professor, Fishery Statistics and Miss K Rajamma in the preparation of this pap,er is gratefully acknowledged. REFERENCES 1. Encyclopaedia Britannica, ed , Macropaedia V 1;.. Stanley M K, Nagesh D: Journal preferences for publication by the agricultural scientists of India: A case study. Paper presented at AALDI/HPKVV All India Seminar on Agricultural Library and Information Services, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, 4-7 May, University of Agricultural Sciences; The first ten years: Bangalore, UAS. p 455. Ann Lib Sci Doc