Scientometric and Altmetric Analysis of Library and Information Science Research in India (1989–2024): Insights from Web of Science and Altmetric Explorer

This study systematically investigates Indian library and information science research by integrating scientometric and altmetric approaches. It examines research trends, publication productivity, collaboration patterns, and the social attention received by scholarly outputs. A total of 2,041 publications published during 1989–2024 were retrieved from the Web of Science database for scientometric analysis. As altmetric data were available only for publications with valid Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) indexed in Altmetric Explorer, the altmetric analysis was limited to 624 publications. The findings reveal that LIS research in India has grown steadily over the past three decades, with accelerated growth in recent years. A high degree of research collaboration was observed, with the United States as the leading international collaborator. The author productivity pattern did not conform to Lotka’s law. Rana, N. P. was identified as the most prolific author. Keyword analysis highlighted India, knowledge management, social media, bibliometrics and scientometrics as the dominant research themes. ‘Scientometrics’ was the preferred publication source, while Emerald was the leading publisher. Altmetric analysis showed that Mendeley readership counts were the predominant indicator of online engagement. Weak and statistically insignificant correlations were observed between citation counts, the Altmetric Attention Score, and Mendeley readership, indicating that these metrics reflect different dimensions of scholarly influence and should be regarded as complementary indicators of research impact. By integrating scientometric and altmetric approaches, this study extends previous bibliometric investigations of Indian LIS research and provides a more comprehensive framework for evaluating research performance, with implications for researchers, publishers, and policymakers.