Performance and visibility ofIndian Research Institutionson the web

摘要

Purpose - This study aims to examine the performance of Indian research Institutions' websites usingwebometrics by investigating their visibility, traffic ranks, number of links, time on site, Indian/Foreignusers and page ranks besides focusing on the two designed hypotheses.Design/methodology/approach - The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)directory (www.csir.res.in/external/heads/aboutcsir/lab_directory.htm) is used to identify the researchinstitutions in India. The directory lists 40 research institutions across India. However, Alexa did notoffer required information for some of the websites due to very high traffic ranks, and accordingly thelist is reduced to 21 research institutions. The data collected were analysed and tabulated to revealfindings in accordance with the desired objectives.Findings - The results reveal that global traffic ranks, number of page views, number of links andtime on site of Indian research institutions are low. However, the page ranks are to some extentsatisfactory. The traffic ranks of Indian research institutions differ significantly, whereas no majordifference in the page ranks is found. Further, the results show that Indian research institutions'websites have not been able to attract foreign visitors given the calibre and reputation of theseinstitutions.Originality/value - The results of this study will be useful for website administrators of researchinstitutions in India and across the globe.