Informetric Portrait of Elinor Ostrom, the Nobel Laureate in the Field of Economic Sciences

Abstract

The publication productivity of Elinor Ostrom, the renowned American Political economist and the first woman laureate to win the most aspired highest prize that is the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2009 for her analysis of economic governance is analysed. The present study has analysed her 197 publications as indexed in Scopus using bibliometric methods covering the period 1965-2018. It is observed that during her 54 years of publication she published average 3-4 works each year. The years 2006, 2008- 2013 accounts for 103 publications i.e. 52.28% and they are the most productive years in her life. She published 85 single-authored papers and 112 multiauthored papers. James Michael Walker who co-authored 19 publications is the most prominent collaborator. Natural resources management is the prominent area of her research. Ostrom used 116 channels prominently being the journal articles covering 119 (60%) of her publications. Ostrom’s works had high reception which can also be seen from the citations received; 50552 citations as per Scopus. Her Recency Index is nearly 0.47 which indicates that nearly 47% of her works are cited in the last five years. Ostrom’s works are an inspiration for the future Nobel aspirants and researchers in economics because she designed a new principle and argued with proof that common resources are best utilised and best managed when they are managed by the localities of the areas where those resources are found. This provided an opportunity for the common people to earn a living as well as helped in the best utilisation of the resources which is a unique idea. Her works therefore opened up avenues to find out the new resources of various areas and continues to be important in the future. The bibliometric analysis attempts to draw some insights of her interesting and important work.