Scientometrics of laser research literature as viewed through the journal of current laser abstracts

An analysis of 4650 publications abstracted in Journal of Current Laser Abstracts Vol. 27 (April 1990-March 1991) indicates that 14 countries contributed about 94% of the research output with USA toping the list followed by Japan and the erstwhile USSR, Technical reports and patents, besides articles in scientific journals constitute an important source of information on laser science and technology. "Spectroscopy of laser output" is the sub-speciality which has received maximum emphasis. USA has paid almost equal emphasis for theoretical, experimental and applications of laser research, while such pattern is not applicable for other countries. For USSR, China, and India, the impact of research did not commensurate with the publication effort.