157 DESIDOC Journal of Library & Information Technology, Vol. 41, No. 2, March 2021, pp. 157-165, DOI : 10.14429/djlit.41.2.16547  2021, DESIDOC Received : 28 November 2020, Revised : 24 January 2021 Accepted : 17 February 2021, Online published : 12 March 2021 Publication Output with Citation-based Performance of Selected DBT Institutes in India Dhiman Mondal #,* , Kaustuv Chakrabarti $ , Sudip Banerjee ! and D.D. Lal ^ # Ananda Mohan College, 102/1, Raja Rammohan Sarani, Kolkata- 700 009, India $ Dept. of Library and Information Science, University of Calcutta, College Street, Kolkata- 700 071, India ! City College of Commerce and Business Administration, Kolkata - 700 012, India ^ National Brain Research Centre, Manesar, Gurugram- 122 052, India * E-mail: dhiman.bon@gmail.com ABSTrACT This scientometric study examines the publication outputs from six institutes of the Department of Biotechnology (DBT) in India as cited in the Scopus database over the past 24 years, 1996-2019. Research in biotechnology and other allied areas were analysed in terms of their chronological growth, activity index, collaborations, preferred journals for publication, country collaborators, popular keywords and scholarly impact. Scientists from the six institutes published 6, 076 journal articles representing 73.65 per cent of nationally collaborated articles and 25.03 per cent of internationally collaborated articles. Of the DBT institutes, the National Institute of Immunology (NII) published the highest number of articles and the Institute of Life Sciences (ILS) shared most patents. Publication frequency was the highest for Plos One journal and the countries with which scientists collaborated included the United States, Germany, United Kingdom and France in that order. The publishing outputs of DBT institutes suggest a need for greater international collaborative research in order to gain scientifc competency and increase the quality of research outputs. Also this study may be helpful to government ofcials and policy makers in determining allocation of resources to boost the scholarly outputs of DBT institutes. Keywords: Biotechnology; Publication; Research; Scientometrics; India 1. InTrODuCTIOn The term biotechnology was used by the agricultural engineer Karl Erkey 1 from Hungary in 1919. According to him, biotechnology deals with the production methods where products are prepared from raw materials with the aid of living organisms 2 . Although the term was used 100 years ago, it is rooted in traditional applications like selective breeding, hybridisation and fermentation. Today’s modern biotechnology also applies techniques involved in such areas as recombinant DNA technology (genetic engineering), the human genome project, and tissue culture. It encompasses aspects of biology, medicine, chemistry and engineering 3 . These techniques have wider scope in varied areas such as food industries, medicine, agriculture and environment 2 . The biotech sector can be broadly divided into fve major segments - bio-pharma, bio-agri, bio- services, bio-industrial and bio-informatics 4 . India has the second-largest population in the world. The country possesses a huge market as well as suitable resources for biotechnology products and services. According to Invest India, the Indian biotechnology industry was valued at USD 51 billion in 2018 having a growth rate of almost 15 per cent year- on-year 5 and has the potential to hit USD 100 billion 6 by 2025. Meanwhile, India is among the top 12 biotech destinations in the world and ranks third in the Asia Pacifc region 7 . In 1986, the Ministry of Science and Technology, India introduced a separate Department of Biotechnology (DBT) as a major initiative to boost the creation of infrastructural facilities and accelerate research and development 8 . Moreover, the Department also set up the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) as an Interface Agency to promote and empower the emerging Biotech enterprise to conduct strategic research and innovation 9 . Presently there are 16 autonomous institutes and 3 Public Sector Undertakings under the DBT 10 . Of these, the National Institute of Immunology (NII), Delhi was established in 1981 and it is the frst autonomous institute brought under the DBT 8 . Though a lot of metric studies are carried out on biotechnology and allied areas in India, these DBT institutes were not considered among the most productive institutions in Biotechnology research in India 11-12 . Scientometrics is a quantitative methodology used to evaluate scientifc output of an institution, discipline or country. Therefore, the present study is an endeavor to investigate the research growth and performance of selected DBT institutes of India using scientometric techniques over the past 24 years.