RESEARCH TRENDS IN GLOBAL OUTPUT OF COSMIC RAYS: A SCIENTOMETRIC ANALYSIS

This paper attempts to highlight the publication status and growth of global cosmic rays research output of Web of Science during 2004-2013. A total of 20395 publications were published on cosmic rays during this period. The average number of publications per year is 2039.5 and the highest number of publications 2565 was published in 2009. The scientometric parameters studied in this paper include forms of publications, annual growth rate, relative growth rate and doubling time of publications, authorship pattern, identification of most prolific authors, country wise distribution of publications, identification of highly productive institutions, language wise distribution of publications and highly preferred source titles for publications