Publication trends in materials science: a global perspective

This paper attempts to highlight quantitatively and qualitatively the growth and development of world literature on materials science in terms of publication output and citations as per Web of Science (2006–2010). The objective of the study was to perform a scientometric analysis of all materials science research publications in the world. The parameters studied include growth of publications and citations, continent-wise distribution of publications and citations, country-wise distribution of publications, domain-wise distribution of publications and citations, publication efficiency index, distribution of publications and citations according to number of collaborating countries, variation of mean impact factor in materials science domains, identification of highly cited publications and highly preferred journals, quality of research output and application of Bradford’s law.