University of Hyderabad faculty rated among India's top three Humanities researchers

Hyderabad: The Centre for Publication Ethics, Savitribai Phule Pune University, has recently finished a study and compiled a report, Arts and Humanities Research in India: Metrics and Data. They studied 5429 publications by Indian academics listed in the world's leading database for journal publications, citations and reviews, the Web of Science (WoS), for the past 30 years 1989-2019. Under Arts and Humanities, they inventoried publications from linguistics, literature, cultural studies, arts, theatre, philosophy, history, etc.

Their five bibliometric parameters included: Top research areas; Year-wise publications; Top Indian institutions / organisations; Types of publications; and countries with whom Indian institutes had collaborated. Their broad findings are: the top research area in Arts and Humanities in India is History, followed by Asian Studies and Literature; the maximum percentage of publications remains Journal Articles, constituting nearly 57 per cent of the total publications (WoS does not include books, but includes book chapters) and the USA is the preferred country for research collaborations.

Concerning University of Hyderabad, whose strongest research area, as seen in publication output, is Literature, these were their findings:

(i) The University of Hyderabad is ranked # 3 among Indian universities in terms of its total contributions to Arts and Humanities research.

(ii) The # 1 researcher, in terms of publications across all Indian universities and faculty is Professor K. Narayana Chandran of the Dept. of English, School of Humanities, making him the single most significant author-researcher in the field in the entire period.

(iii) The # 3 researcher, in terms of publications across all Indian universities and faculty, is Professor Pramod K. Nayar, also of the Dept. of English, School of Humanities. He is also the Director of Institution of Eminence project at UoH.

The Report and bibliometric results reinforced UoH as one of India's best research institutions. With two of its faculty among the top three researchers in India in Arts and Humanities, UoH is delighted that it continually proves its stature as an "Institution of Eminence".

Prof Appa Rao Podile, Vice Chancellor, expressing his happiness at the empirical proof of UoH's research strengths, said that UoH is identifying its "signature areas of research", and such studies help us consolidate our strengths. He congratulated Professors Narayana Chandran and Pramod Nayar for their consistent and excellent research output.