ALBERT

Description: Scientifically liberated and developed countries produce huge amounts of cutting-edge publications in peer-reviewed impact-creating journals. These publications may become basis for various policies/other blueprints. There is no reported study regarding the publication trends of Periodontists from India. The aim of this study was to assess the trends of Indian Periodontist’s publications in Pubmed database till 1st March, 2012 by taking quantitative bibliometric approach. Studies were identified by running select search phrases on Pubmed search engine. Search inputs included, ‘dental’, ‘oral’, ‘periodontal’, ‘gingiva’, ‘gingival’, ‘periodontology’, ‘periodontics’, ‘periodontia’, ‘periodontitis’, ‘gingivitis’, and ‘dental implant’. A parallel search with above phrases along with ‘India’ also done to assess India-specific publications. All publications with or without available abstracts were analyzed for selected parameters. Analysis was performed to determine name of the journal, number of authors, year of publication, type of institute, statewide distribution, type of study etc. The approximate contribution of Indian Dental/Periodontal literature to Pubmed database is 1.45 % till 1st March 2012. The number of articles published by Indian Periodontists is 764 across 107 journals and starting from 1960. The number of original articles published were 510 (66.75 %) as opposed to 127 (16.62 %) each for review articles and case reports/case series. The average contribution of an Indian Periodontist to Pubmed database is 0.53 articles. The contribution of Indian Periodontists to world literature through Pubmed database is not voluminous but, the publications are multiplying every passing year almost in an exponential way. There is also an increasing trend towards original articles to be published.