Sci-Bytes> Ranking of Asia-Pacific Nations in Chemistry, 2000-2010
Week of March 27, 2011
Ranked by citation impact, among those publishing 3,000 or more papers.
A-P Rank |
World Rank |
Nations | Papers | Citations |
Citations Per Paper |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 12 | Singapore | 7,596 | 97,454 | 12.83 |
2 | 16 | Australia | 19,131 | 237,923 | 12.44 |
3 | 19 | Japan | 115,760 | 1,363,434 | 11.78 |
* | * | WORLD | 1,197,020 | 13,394,419 | 11.19 |
4 | 23 | New Zealand | 3,257 | 34,755 | 10.67 |
5 | 24 | South Korea | 36,557 | 360,424 | 9.86 |
6 | 26 | Taiwan | 20,041 | 186,746 | 9.32 |
7 | 37 | Thailand | 3,955 | 27,730 | 7.01 |
8 | 38 | India | 64,903 | 451,536 | 6.96 |
9 | 39 | China | 181,496 | 1,245,602 | 6.86 |
10 | 45 | Malaysia | 5,365 | 22,461 | 4.19 |
SOURCE: Thomson Reuters Essential Science IndicatorsSM database, January 1, 2000 - December 31, 2010. |
The Asia-Pacific region has become the dominant producer of research papers in chemistry. The region now contributes some 43% of those published in the internationally influential journals indexed by Clarivate. While the Asia-Pacific world share in the field has more than doubled in the past three decades (up from 19% in 1981), the world shares in chemistry for the European Union and for the United States have dropped significantly since the mid-1990s and now stand at 32% and 18%, respectively. Much of the Asia-Pacific region’s dramatic rise can be attributed to China, whose output in chemistry increased from a world share of .3% in 1981 to just over 20% now.
While China takes the spotlight in terms of increased output in chemistry, within the Asia-Pacific region it is Singapore that excels in research impact, as measured by average citations to its chemistry papers. The table above lists the Asia-Pacific nations that published at least 3,000 papers in chemistry journals during 2000-2010, and ranks these nations by citations per paper. This weighted measure allows for the analysis of large and smaller producers together. Despite its relatively small production, Singapore tops the ranking. At 12.83 citations per paper, Singapore’s papers were cited at a level 15% above the world average of 11.19. That also earned Singapore a rank of 12th globally.
During 2000-2010, Singapore published 100 chemistry papers that qualified as highly cited, meaning that for their field and year of publication they ranked in the top 1% by total citations. Of the 100, the National University of Singapore (NUS) published 64, the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) published 29, and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) research institutes, including the Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, the Institute of Microelectronics, and the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, published 23 (the total of these surpass 100 owing to co-authorship). The establishment of the A*STAR research institutes and the production of these 100 highly cited papers undoubtedly did much to increase the citation impact of Singapore in chemistry from 7% below world average at the beginning of the decade to 24% above world average currently.
For this analysis, data were extracted from the Essential Science Indicators database of Clarivate. This database, currently covering the period January 2000 through December 2010, surveys only articles (original research reports and review articles) in journals indexed by Clarivate. Articles are assigned to a field based on the journals in which they were published and Clarivate journal-to-field scheme. Papers published in multidisciplinary journals such as Nature and Science are assigned to fields on an article-by-article basis. Both articles tabulated and citation counts to those articles are for the period indicated. For articles with multiple authors from different nations, each nation receives full, not fractional, publication and citation credit.
See Essential Science IndicatorsSM from Clarivate for more information.
This item also appeared in the Times Higher Education magazine.