The forestry research in Bangladesh: A bibliometric analysis of the journals published from chittagong university, Bangladesh

Abstract

To measure the coverage and quality of journals, bibliometrics plays a great role in the library and information science. It scrutinizes the publication patterns of all forms of written communication and their authorship. Chittagong University Studies Part II: Science, The Chittagong University Journal of Science and Journal of Forestry and Environment published by Chittagong University were analyzed to measure the quality of the publication and authorship of the forestry research in Bangladesh. A total of 194 forestry papers were published including 89, 48 and 57 in the mentioned journals, respectively. Journal of Forestry and Environment was found to publish comparatively larger number of forestry papers 11 per volume. A fair increasing trend of forestry papers was observed in the Chittagong University Studies Part II: Science from 1977 to 1997. A contribution of the different organizations in the same papers was found dominant in the journals as 81 %, 63% and 63%, respectively. Maximum of 5 authors were found in the papers for all the journals and years. Average number of authors was found 2, 3 and 3 for the journals, respectively. A total of 17, 20, 18, 11 and 4 organizations were found contributing to the papers as the first, second, third, fourth and fifth authors, respectively for all the journals and years considered. Chittagong was found as the highest location of the organization contributing to the papers as 95%, 93%, 93%, 85% and 86% for the first through fifth authors, respectively. The papers published in The Chittagong University Journal of Science showed the full collaboration for all the years with the degree of collaboration 1. Most of the papers (55%) published from 1977 to 2007 were found under the umbrella of Applied Forestry followed by 31 % Fundamental Biological Research, 11% Social Science and 3% Environmental Forestry. The papers on Silviculture were found highest, 23% among all the subjects recorded. The highest mean of the number of pages in the papers was found 8 for both The Chittagong University Journal of Science and Journal of Forestry and Environment, while highest mean of references used in the papers was 19 in the Journal of Forestry and Environment. The findings of the study will be useful for research planning and resource allocation in the forestry sector of Bangladesh. © 2008 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.