Gangan Prathap | NISCAIR (CSIR) (original) (raw)

Papers by Gangan Prathap

Scientometrics, Jun 15, 2016

In this discussion we show that the significance of the cubic relationship observed in Basu et al... more In this discussion we show that the significance of the cubic relationship observed in Basu et al. (Scientometrics, 2016. doi: 10.1007/s11192-016-1935-0) can be explained simply—QQCI is a proxy for the normalized form of the exergy term X = (TC2/TP) and so the relationship seen in Nishy et al. (Scientometrics 91(1):245–251, 2012) is just confirmed. The original data is reworked to show explicitly the values of X and h3 and using a correlation test it is shown that there is remarkable agreement between X and h3.

Scientometrics, Oct 24, 2018

Scientometrics, Sep 24, 2021

Current Science, Jul 10, 2020

36-37After 52 matches to determine top 4 teams, who shone brightest in FIFA Women’s World Cup 201... more 36-37After 52 matches to determine top 4 teams, who shone brightest in FIFA Women’s World Cup 2019? Understanding the measures to determine quality of performance of teams

Current Science, Aug 10, 2016

Current Science, Mar 25, 2018

Current Science, Jan 10, 2018

Current Science, Sep 15, 2015

Current Science, Aug 1, 2018

Current Science, Oct 10, 2017

Scientometrics, Apr 12, 2023

Scientometrics, Jun 15, 2016

Scientometrics, Oct 24, 2018

Scientometrics, Sep 24, 2021

Current Science, Jul 10, 2020

Current Science, Aug 10, 2016

Current Science, Mar 25, 2018

Current Science, Jan 10, 2018

Current Science, Sep 15, 2015

Current Science, Aug 1, 2018

Current Science, Oct 10, 2017

Scientometrics, Apr 12, 2023

A graph theoretic approach from social network analysis allows size-dependent and size-independen... more A graph theoretic approach from social network analysis allows size-dependent and size-independent bibliometric indicators to be identified from what is called the citation matrix. In an input-output sense, the number of references becomes the size-dependent measure of the input and the number of citations received by the journal from all journals in the network becomes the size-dependent measure of the output. However, in this paper, we are interested to compare two size-independent dimensionless indicators: the Pinski-Narin Influence Weight (IW) and the Ramanujacharyulu Power-Weakness Ratio (PWR). These are proxies for the quality of the journal’s performance in the network. We show that at the non-recursive level, the two indicators are identical. At this stage these are simply measures of popularity. After recursion (i.e. repeated improvement or iteration) these become network measures of prestige of the journals. PWR is computed as a ratio of terms in the weighted citations vector and weighted references vector after the power and weakness matrices are separately recursively iterated. The Pinski-Narin procedure computes a matrix of ratios first and evaluates the IW after recursive iteration of this matrix of ratios. In this sense, the two procedures differ just like the RoA (ratio of averages) and the AoR (Average of Ratios) ways of computing relative citation indicators.

We illustrate the concepts using datasets from subgraphs of 10 statistical journals and 14 Chinese chemistry journals with network data collected from the Web of Science. We are also able to show the confounding effects when self-citations are taken into account.

A three-dimensional framework to see how Indian universities and research-focused institutions fa... more A three-dimensional framework to see how Indian universities and research-focused institutions fare in the world of high end research in terms of excellence and diversity of its research base.

At the country level we break down scholarly performance into three components –

Size,
Excellence,
Balance or Evenness

A brief history of the least action principle

The 51st and final match of Euro 2024 was played on 14 July 2024 at the Olympiastadion, Berlin.... more The 51st and final match of Euro 2024 was played on 14 July 2024 at the Olympiastadion, Berlin. Spain, unbeaten in all their 7 matches and inarguably the best team in the tournament, beat England 2-1. Euro 2024 saw 24 teams play a total of 51 matches starting from 14 June to 14 July 2024. Of these, 36 matches were played in a round-robin stage, with four teams each in six groups for a total of 36 matches. Sixteen teams qualified for the knock-out stage: 8 matches in the round of 16, 4 matches in the quarter-finals, two more in the semi-finals and a grand final to determine the top team.

At the end of the day, a total of 117 goals were scored, discounting the goals in the penalty shoot-outs. More than 50 years ago, an Indian mathematician named Ramanujacharyulu (C. Ramanujacharyulu, Analysis of preferential experiments, Psychometrika, 3 (1964), pp. 257-261) introduced a protocol which allows us to reconcile the results of a group of teams and their matches playing a tournament, and choose the winner, or rank them in an order. Each team meets the other team (the paired comparison) once or several times and registers a result each time – a win, a tie or draw, or a loss. That is each of the matches is considered to be an experiment, and the result, an expressed preference for one team over the other. With this knowledge, we can construct the tournament matrices based on the actual goals scored and conceded. This tournament metaphor can be used to evaluate the rankings at the end of the tournament, even if each team has not met the other even once, as is the case here.

The 48 th edition of the 2024 Copa America concluded on July 14, 2024. In the 32 nd and final mat... more The 48 th edition of the 2024 Copa America concluded on July 14, 2024. In the 32 nd and final match at the Hard Rock Stadium in Maimi Gardens, Florida, Argentina won a record 16 th title beating Colombia 1-0 in a match that went into extra time. They were unbeaten having won 5 matches and being held to a 1-1 draw by Ecuador in a quarterfinal match. From June 20 to July 14, 16 teams played a total of 32 matches. Of these, 24 matches were played in a roundrobin stage, with four teams each in four groups. Eight teams qualified for the knockout stage: 4 matches in the quarter-finals, two more in the semifinals , a match for third and fourth places, and the final to determine the top team.

The Premier League 2023-24 came to an end on 19 May 2024. The twenty teams played each other twic... more The Premier League 2023-24 came to an end on 19 May 2024. The twenty teams played each other twice for a total of 380 matches and a total of 1246 goals were scored. Since each win counted for 3 points and a draw gave a point each to the teams concerned, Manchester City won the tournament with 91 points, just two ahead of Arsenal. Note that whatever the scoreline, 1-0 or 7-0, a win counts as 3-0. Similarly, a 0-0 or 5-5 draw will count as 1-1. So, what if a goal-based scoring system were to have been adopted: Would City have ranked at the top?

Hosts and defending champions Qatar successfully retained the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (... more Hosts and defending champions Qatar successfully retained the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2023_AFC_Asian_Cup), defeating Jordan 3-1 in the final. Altogether 24 teams played 51 matches and a total of 132 goals were scored. But was Jordan the second-best team?

A Theory of Performance (ToP) analysis shows that the real winner of Kerala Kalolsavam 2024 was W... more A Theory of Performance (ToP) analysis shows that the real winner of Kerala Kalolsavam 2024 was Wayanad.

The Hindi Heartland (also known as the Hindi Belt) comprises several states whose lingua franca i... more The Hindi Heartland (also known as the Hindi Belt) comprises several states whose lingua franca is Hindi. For quite some time now, the electoral mandate in these states has been dominated by caste-based politics, and this seems to have continued in the three states, namely Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, that went to the polls recently.

The Hindu reported on the social basis of voting in these states:

Chhattisgarh - (Sandeep Shastri, Sanjay Kumar, and Suhas Palshikar, In Chhattisgarh, lack of jobs, price rise, and corruption bring down Congress government, Friday, December 8, 2023)

Madhya Pradesh - (Sanjay Kumar, Suhas Palshikar, Yatindar Singh Sisodia, and Sandeep Shastri, How BJP worked to retain Madhya Pradesh, Thursday, December 7, 2023)

Rajasthan - (Sanjay Lodha, Sandeep Shastri, Suhas Palshikar, and Sanjay Kumar, Why the Congress lost Rajasthan, Wednesday, December 6, 2023).

These three reports, as well as a fourth on Telangana (not discussed here), used data from the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll surveys. The analyses were accompanied by well curated tabular results. All intersections were considered (age demographics, gender, educational levels, rural-urban divide, economic levels, and of course, caste). In each case, the consideration was mainly about how the various categories voted differentially for various major political parties and their alliances. However, in what follows, we shall only look at how caste identity groups have voted differentially in these elections.

In this article, I borrow ideas from econometrics to show that the presentation can be made graphically more appealing, and cognitively more meaningful, by using the Lorenz curve. I also introduce two new measures of polarization – a Leverage term of Polarization (LoP) and an Index of Polarization (IoP), and use a well know cosine measure of similarity, as single number measures of the extent and direction of polarization. Also, the difference in directions of polarization between two groups for a given party can be measured using a cosine similarity measure.

The Hindu reported on the social basis of voting (Sandeep Shastri, Suhas Palshikar, Sanjay Kumar,... more The Hindu reported on the social basis of voting (Sandeep Shastri, Suhas Palshikar, Sanjay Kumar, and Vageeshan Harathi, Winds of Change in Telangana, Tuesday, December 5, 2023) using data from the Lokniti-CSDS post-poll survey. The analysis is accompanied by well curated tabular results. The consideration is mainly about how identity and pressure groups have voted differentially for the various political alliances.

In this article, I borrow ideas from econometrics to show that the presentation can be made graphically more appealing, and cognitively more meaningful, by using the Lorenz curve. I also introduce two new measures of polarization – a Leverage term and an Index of Polarization. Also, the difference in directions of polarization between two groups for a given party can be measured using a cosine similarity measure.

We make a comparative study of research in G20 countries.

We use graph theoretical arguments to show that India was the best team in 2023, just as it was f... more We use graph theoretical arguments to show that India was the best team in 2023, just as it was four year earlier in the 2019 edition.

Ten national teams will go into the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket ODI World Cup, to be held from 5 Octob... more Ten national teams will go into the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket ODI World Cup, to be held from 5 October to 19 November 2023. This will be the 13th edition of a quadrennial One Day International (ODI) cricket tournament organised by the International Cricket Council (ICC). The teams are: Afghanistan, Australia, Bangladesh, England, India, Netherlands, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. Let us see how the teams are placed using what I call Ramanujacharyulu’s (henceforth Ram) tournament metaphor, taking into consideration their Head-to-Head encounters so far in this format.

The time dimension rarely enters into the bibliometric discourse. But this is possible in a very ... more The time dimension rarely enters into the bibliometric discourse. But this is possible in a very simple and neat way if the arithmetical rule of three (Prathap 2006, 2016) is introduced. It is the time it takes for an average scientist or author (Fulltime Equivalent Researcher or FTER) to publish a paper. Its inverse is also a proxy for the efficiency or velocity of research publication in terms of FTER time to finish a given quantum of work and get it published.

The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ kicked off on 20 July with the official... more The FIFA Women’s World Cup Australia & New Zealand 2023™ kicked off on 20 July with the official slogan Beyond Greatness. After 64 matches (48 as round-robin in eight groups of four teams each) and another 16 in the knockout stage to determine the top four places, Spain has been crowned the queens of football. If Spain was great, then was Japan beyond greatness? They won all their matches in Group C, beat Spain 4-0 on 31 July 2023 and topped the Group with the full 9 points from 3 matches with 11 goals for and none against. No other team topped a group in such a comprehensive way.

Colleges contribute the highest number of graduates but only a small portion of the country's aca... more Colleges contribute the highest number of graduates but only a small portion of the country's academic research output. In this study, we shall report on the data from the latest All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE 2020-21). We argue that it would make sense to discourage the proliferation of colleges and move to a largely university model of higher education as envisaged in NEP 2020.

We follow the protocol used in our earlier studies to see how leading higher educational institut... more We follow the protocol used in our earlier studies to see how leading higher educational institutions (HEIs) in India have been faring during this period, as compared to the comparators from China.

We propose an improvement of the recently introduced individual hi-index by incorporating two add... more We propose an improvement of the recently introduced individual hi-index by incorporating two additional conditions: the conservation of counts of fractionalized publications as a measure of quantity and the dimensionally consistent use of impact as an intensive measure of quality. As the two measures are then dimensionally homogenous, the heuristic trade-off between quality and quantity can be reliably used to compute the improved hi-index.

The Gini index or coefficient is the most popular approach to measure inequality. In conjunction ... more The Gini index or coefficient is the most popular approach to measure inequality. In conjunction with the Lorenz curve, it has a heuristic provenance and does not originate from first principles. But once defined, it also leads easily to a measure of evenness or balance. In this paper, we compare this with another indicator which we shall call for easy reference as the Gipi index which comes naturally from a thermodynamic perspective and leads to simple dimensionless measures of inequality, and hence of balance and evenness, with values that range from 0 (perfect equality, balance or evenness) to 1 (perfect inequality, unevenness or absolute concentration). The Gipi index emerges from a thermodynamically intuitive weighting of the distribution to get second-order energy like terms. In contrast, the Gini index can be interpreted as a non-intuitive way of weighting the distribution where the second-order terms are not energy terms in the classical physics definition. However, both indicators have the invariance properties and sensitivity to the transfer requirements expected of any good inequality or evenness indicator.

Ireland won the Guinness 2023 Six Nations Championship. We review the performance from a graph th... more Ireland won the Guinness 2023 Six Nations Championship. We review the performance from a graph theoretical point of view.

ChatGPT is a 'large language model' system based on neural networks that learns by digesting huge... more ChatGPT is a 'large language model' system based on neural networks that learns by digesting huge amounts of existing human-generated text and can create realistic and intelligent responses to prompts from a user. A sophisticated user can conduct a Socratic dialogue with it and learn and teach at the same time. In this paper we present a dialogue on h-type indices that may be of use to authors, readers and reviewers in the area of bibliometrics.

The Hockey World Cup 2023 is re-examined using Ramanujacharyulu's Power-Weakness approach.

When Argentina lifted the World Cup a total of 172 goals were scored in 64 matches by the 32 team... more When Argentina lifted the World Cup a total of 172 goals were scored in 64 matches by the 32 teams that participated, for an average of 2.69 goals per match. This total was the largest in a single edition of the World Cup. What if a goal-based scoring system were to have been adopted: Would Argentina have ranked at the top? The problem is complex.

An inspirational book, now out of print by Dr Kurt Kauffmann on "the process by which thoughts ar... more An inspirational book, now out of print by Dr Kurt Kauffmann on "the process by which thoughts are created."

In the modern world, the fields of science and technology have made significant progress. These s... more In the modern world, the fields of science and technology have made significant progress. These significant and rapid progress is primarily due to the advancements in computational capabilities. Traditionally, the testing of scientific laws and engineering principles is done heavily on laboratory experiments. However, these experiments often had limitations when it came to simulating complex real-world scenarios and accounting for all possible variations. This posed a challenge in accurately simulating and drawing a deeper understanding of these derived theories. To bridge this gap between theoretical knowledge and practical applications, computational science has emerged as a powerful tool. With the advent of sensor technologies, powerful computing hardware, and rigorous mathematical algorithms, scientists and researchers now have the tools to tackle complex systems with great accuracy close to reality. These have enabled the treatment of underlying phenomena with greater precision than ever before. Consequently, there has been a paradigm shift in the way we approach scientific exploration. This integrates advanced computational techniques and vast amounts of data into the logic of discovery and the logic of justification. We now see data-driven approaches, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) driving scientific research forward. Computational science has already shown that it is a bridge that connects the fundamental understanding of scientific principles with real-world evidence. It allows researchers to validate hypotheses, make predictions, and gain deeper insights and come to a consensus of complex phenomena. The workshop titled "Conjectures to Consilience through Computation" is centered around this understanding of the key role of computation in science. It aims to delve into the intersection of computational science, theoretical and philosophical conjectures, and empirical evidence, and ultimately seeking convergence of knowledge across disciplines.