Scholarly Literature from SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) Nations

Abstract

Research as a refined method of reflective thinking and a critical and exhaustive method of investigation leads to the real innovation which lead to the growth and development of nation as a whole, understanding the status research in terms of its growth and trends is the basic component for strategic development of nation.The present study attempts to investigate the growth and development of the scholarly literature published by the SAARC Nations. The study is based on the Data harvested from Scopus- one of the largest indexing and abstracting database in the fields of science, technology,medicine, social sciences and arts and humanities .Data congregated encompasses research publications published for the period, 1900-Dec 2013. To achieve the laid down objectives publication were systematically analyzed on the basis of preferred parameters that includes chronology, mode of access, source type, subject area covered and geographical distribution. However, it was observed that certain number of research contributions is accessible in more than one subject area subsequently the calculation done surpasses the actual number of publications. At present 635 research articles are published in academic journals, trade publications book series and conference proceedings that are listed in 25 subject categories. Amid SAARC Nations , India followed by Pakistan and Bangladesh holds first ,second and third rank contributing (499), (97)and (25)with Sri lanka and Nepal contributing 7 publications each and no contribution is shown from Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives. Further more, academic journals are primary medium of scholarly communication for the reason that more than 90% of literature is published through them. However, access to the literature appears to be more constrained since 90% of publication is accessible through commercial mode only.