Scholarly Output and Citation Impact of the Indian Journal of Medical Research (2014–2024): A Scientometric Analysis using Scopus and Scival
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/lis.2026.12.01.05Keywords:
Indian Journal of Medical Research, Scientometrics, Bibliometrics, SciVal, Field-Weighted Citation Impact, ICMR, Biomedical researchAbstract
Background: The Indian Journal of Medical Research (IJMR), founded in 1913 and published by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), is India's oldest continuously published biomedical journal. Notwithstanding its historical eminence, no comprehensive scientometric analysis covering its most recent decade of output has been conducted using the SciVal analytics platform. Objectives: This study evaluates IJMR's scholarly output, citation impact, authorship patterns, institutional and geographical distributions, thematic landscape, collaboration networks, and funding structures for the period 2014–2024. Methods: Publication and citation data were retrieved from Scopus; normalised bibliometric indicators — including Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and SciVal Topic Prominence Percentile — were generated via SciVal. Network visualisations were produced using VOSviewer. Results: IJMR produced 2,745 Scopus-indexed documents accumulating 35,371 citations over the study period (mean CPP = 12.9; overall FWCI = 0.62). Annual output peaked in 2020 (n = 378), driven by the COVID-19 pandemic, and declined to 167 by 2024. Original articles dominated output (54.0%). ICMR was the pre-eminent institutional contributor (548 documents; FWCI = 0.90). India accounted for 75.4% of total authorship; internationally collaborative papers, though only 8.8% of output, achieved the highest FWCI (0.90). COVID-19 and tropical endemic diseases dominated the thematic landscape, with two topics surpassing the 99th SciVal Topic Prominence Percentile. Conclusions: IJMR remains the principal vehicle for Indian biomedical research dissemination. Its sub-world-average FWCI identifies expanded international collaboration and thematic diversification as the most actionable levers for improving global citation competitiveness.
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