Impact Assessment of Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA) on Research Productivity of Agricultural Universities in India

Nirmal Singh; RC Agrawal; K Veeranjaneyulu; G Rathinasabapathy

doi:10.56093/ijas.v95i9.161610

Authors

Nirmal Singh Guru Angad Dev Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Ludhiana
Dr. RC Agrawal ICAR
Dr. K Veeranjaneyulu
Dr. G Rathinasabapathy TANUVAS

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijas.v95i9.161610

Abstract

This study aims to measure the extent of usage of Consortium for e-Resources in Agriculture (CeRA) and its impact on overall research productivity of Agricultural Universities. The data was retrieved from CeRA and SCOPUS. The number of document downloads, average and Compound Annual Growth Rates, and number of downloads per paper have been calculated based on total number of papers published (productivity) and downloaded from the consortium. The study is limited to 61 Agricultural Universities (SAUs) for the period 2015 to 2021 and excludes ICAR research institutions. The results revealed that the top 10 universities with the highest downloads have consumed half of the total number of downloads (50.02%) from CeRA, whereas remaining 51 universities cumulatively consumed the remaining half of total downloads. The Top-9 universities with high publication output have contributed 50.71% of total number of publications produced by all Agricultural Universities together, albeit the top 3 universities have contributed more than 1/4th of total publications. Out of the top 10 highly cited papers of each of the top 20 agricultural universities, 73% were published after the implementation of CeRA. Universities and Institutions downloading a large numbers of articles from CeRA, but relatively having low research productivity, need to be sensitized about this gap so that they can focus on the optimal utilisation of CeRA for their research endeavours. Similarly, Universities and Institutions making effective use of CeRA and producing a higher number of publications be motivated by giving suitable incentives like some additional points during institutions Ranking.

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