The study aims to to analyze the performance of education and research institutes in India in medical and allied sciences during 1999-2008, based on their research output, using robust quantitative and qualitative indicators which give a more rational procedure for ranking their research performance. Data is collected from the SCOPUS database and a new composite performance indicator, the p-index, is used to measure performance. The overall ranking of top 30 colleges give an indicative, if not nearly comprehensive, assessment of how the medical higher education is performing as generators of new knowledge. Ranking on a specialisation basis is also provided.
In this commentary we have proposed a more rational procedure for ranking the research performance of universities by identifying the indicators that are best correlated with each other and then using a composite indicator emerging as a product of these.
Berzelius failed to make use of Faraday's electrochemical laws in his laborious determination of equivalent weights.