Bibliometric Study of Publication By Indian Prosthodontists Between 1996-2007: A Medline Approach

Abstract

Bibliometric study of a subject will help administrators and policy makers to frame policies for the growth of the subject. Prosthodontics is an integral part of dental sciences and no bibliometric study has been done on Indian prosthodontics publications. Publications from Indian Dental establishments during 1996-2007 were collected from Medline and data were collected. First author's affiliations were only considered. Publications by prosthodontists were considered for this study. Predictor variables: year, number of author, state Outcome variables: type and reach of journal, type of article. There were 43 articles fulfilling the criteria. Prosthodontist from nine different states published in 12 different journals. Thirteen (30.2 %) were case reports, 23 (53.5 %) were research, 4 (9.3 %) were reviews and 3 (7 %) were technical note. The inter-annual variation between the type and reach of article and type of articles is presented. The growth trend analysis was performed and predictions are presented. Prosthodontist exhibited a trend to publish in general dental journals, publish case reports, in international journals. The mean numbers of authors in each type are discussed. The potential use of this data are discussed.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]