Exploring 120 years of Indian physics and astronomy journals

Abstract

This paper traces one hundred and twenty years journey of Indian physics and astronomy journals. Of the 122 journals that have been published since 1902, 36 journals have ceased publication. The oldest physics related article was published in 1788 in Asiatick Researches, the first Indian research periodical. The oldest Indian astronomy journal Publications of the Maharaja Takhtasingji Observatory came into being in 1902 from Pune and ceased in 1912. The oldest Indian physics journal Bhoutika Kalanidhi or The Treasury of the Physical Sciences started in the year 1911 from Madras (present-day Chennai) and ceased in 1919. In all, 53% of journals belong to broad science discipline but publish articles on physics and astronomy regularly along with other major science disciplines followed by 35% and 12% journals strictly belong to the subject areas, physics, and astronomy respectively. It is observed that nearly 50% of journals are indexed by the Indian Citation Index, while 20% of journals are indexed by the Indian Citation Index, Scopus, and Web of Science. Also, 30% of journals are not indexed by any citation database. In the 120 year period, the highest number of seven journals came into being in the year 2012.