Preprint Submissions by Indian Scientists in arXiv

This note analyses the preprint submission patterns of Indian scientists to the popular preprint server arXiv. We analysed research papers published during a five-year period (2014-18) as indexed in the Web of Science and identified how many of these were deposited in arXiv. The discipline-wise distribution of research papers deposited in the repository was also analysed. Results show that overall, only about 3.5% of research papers were deposited in arXiv. The deposits, however, vary across disciplines, ranging from a high of about 23% for physics to a low of 0.4% for agricultural science and biology. We present the overall submission and download statistics for arXiv, and highlight the need for promoting the use of such repositories by the Indian scientific community.