In Six of 22 Categories At Least One Taiwan Institution Ranks
Within the World's Top 100 for 2004-2008 Period According To Thomson Reuters
Taipei, TAIWAN, June 1 /PRNewswire-Asia/ -- Universities in Taiwan are ranked amongst the top one percent of research institutions from around the world over a period of five years from January 2004 to December 2008. According to data derived from the Essential Science Indicators SM (1)(ESI) database of the Healthcare & Science business of Thomson Reuters, at least one Taiwan institution is ranked among the world's top 100 in six of 22 categories, namely Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Computer Science, Engineering, Materials Science, and Pharmacology & Toxicology.
At least two or more Taiwan universities are represented within the top 100 in Agricultural Science, Computer Science, Engineering and Materials Science. Additionally, two Taiwan universities were ranked within the world's top 50 in the fields of Engineering and Materials Science.
Essential Science Indicators is a bi-monthly compilation of Web of Science(R)(2), the world's most authoritative citation database with multidisciplinary content spanning 256 disciplines and covering more than 11,000 of the highest impact journals worldwide. This institutional ranking based on the ESI database takes into account variations and changes of university names to be managed in a consistent manner. The ranking is based on each institution's research output in high-standard international scholarly journals and is considered as evidence of their academic excellence. This approach differs vastly from that used in other university rankings, most of which are consolidated based on multiple aspects of university research and education using both objective and subjective criteria.
The ranking derived from ESI below shows up to five Taiwan universities that appeared in each of the six categories along with their world standing. Ranking of the universities is based on the total number of citations of their research publications from January 2004 to December 2008 as indexed in Web of Science.
Taiwan World Average cites
rank rank Institution Cites Papers per paer
Agricultural Science
1 62 National Taiwan University 1068 297 3.6
2 87 National Chunghsing University 893 282 3.17
3 223 Chung Shan Medical University 372 112 3.32
4 306 National Taiwan Ocean University 247 89 2.78
Chemistry
1 74 National Taiwan University 9975 1995 5
2 130 National Tsing Hua University 7316 1299 5.63
3 260 National Cheng Kung University 4641 1071 4.33
4 285 National Sun Yat-sen University 4031 812 4.96
5 294 National Chiao Tung University 3931 803 4.9
Computer Science
1 72 National Taiwan University 867 621 1.4
2 96 National Chiao Tung University 717 644 1.11
3 153 National Sun Yat-sen University 493 283 1.74
4 154 National Tsing Hua University 493 376 1.31
5 159 National Cheng Kung University 485 499 0.97
Engineering
1 34 National Taiwan University 4063 1931 2.1
2 37 National Cheng Kung University 3927 2134 1.84
3 51 National Chiao Tung University 3362 1762 1.91
4 125 National Tsing Hua University 1979 1113 1.78
5 242 National Sun Yat-sen University 1151 668 1.72
Materials Science
1 37 National Tsing Hua University 3977 906 4.39
2 48 National Taiwan University 3452 894 3.86
3 52 National Cheng Kung University 3362 1259 2.67
4 95 National Chiao Tung University 2243 576 3.89
5 256 National Sun Yat-sen University 1001 333 3.01
Pharmacology & Toxicology
1 75 National Taiwan University 1738 356 4.88
2 138 Taipei Medical University 1253 246 5.09
3 224 Kaohsiung Medical University 854 248 3.44
4 258 National Yang Ming University 761 171 4.45
5 274 National Cheng Kung University 694 146 4.75
In most of the categories, Taiwan universities showed an improvement in their world ranking. Their productivity, as indicated by number of papers, and impact, as indicated by number of citations, has generally increased.
This year's ranking differs from 2008(3) with the addition of the Computer Science category to the analysis. National Taiwan University was ranked 72nd in this category. All five Taiwan universities listed in the Computer Science category showed an improvement in their world ranking when compared to their placement in 2008.
In summary with the collating of all 22 categories in ESI, the top 10 Taiwan universities are as follows:
All Fields
Taiwan World Average cites
rank rank Institution Cites Papers per paer
1 141 National Taiwan University 65693 16144 4.07
2 363 National Cheng Kung University 29109 9515 3.06
3 438 National Tsing Hua University 22456 5962 3.77
4 509 National Yang Ming University 18025 3978 4.53
5 524 National Chiao Tung University 17485 6355 2.75
6 680 National Sun Yat-sen University 12705 4182 3.04
7 693 National Central University 12412 3790 3.27
8 703 Chang Gung University 11918 3505 3.4
9 770 National Chunghsing University 10598 3709 2.86
10 813 Kaohsiung Medical University 9647 2613 3.69
"The ranking result derived from ESI continues to reflect the growing citation impact of Taiwan universities worldwide over the past five years," said Mr. Mark Garlinghouse, senior vice president, Asia Pacific, Thomson Reuters. "Since 2001, Thomson Reuters has been applying consistent methodology in ESI and continuously improving its quality. As the leading global provider of authoritative information to academic and research institutions, we are always committed to ensuring the integrity of our information in their research evaluation endeavours."
Ms. Nobuko Miyairi, principal consultant, research solutions, Asia Pacific at Thomson Reuters, commented, "The consistency and robustness of our methodology is well demonstrated in the 'All Fields' ranking, when compared to last year's analysis. We do not see drastic changes in the domestic ranking while observing each university's improvement in world ranking and the corresponding numerical values associated with each. The five-year ranking in each category clearly shows that Taiwan universities are advancing their standing among peers, with a particularly stronger presence in physical science and applied sciences."
She added, "When interpreting these university rankings, it is important for us to factor in the size of the universities as well as the research focus in their academic pursuit. Universities with a large number of researchers tend to dominate these rankings if the ranking is based on the number of papers published or citations received as a total. Universities with an emphasis on certain disciplines may not necessarily look good in 'All Fields' ranking. University administrators and evaluators are encouraged to consider the various perspectives presented by these different rankings while assessing their overall research output and strategies to balance their research activities."
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Notes to Editor:
1. Essential Science Indicators SM (ESI) is a resource that enables researchers to conduct ongoing, quantitative analyses of research performance and track trends in science. Covering a multidisciplinary selection of more than 11,000 journals from around the world, this in-depth analytical tool offers data for ranking scientists, institutions, countries, and journals. This unique and comprehensive compilation of science performance statistics and science trends data is based on journal article publication counts and citation data from Thomson Reuters databases. Available as a 10-year rolling file, ESI covers 10 million articles in 22 specific fields of research, and is updated every two months.
2. Web of Science(R) provides seamless access to current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from over 11,000 of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world and 130,000 conference proceedings worldwide. Web of Science also provides a unique search method, cited reference searching. With it, users can navigate forward, backward, and through the literature, searching all disciplines and time spans to uncover all the information relevant to their research. Users can also navigate to electronic full-text journal articles.
3. For 2008 ranking of Taiwan universities, visit http://science.thomsonreuters.com/press/2008/8450553/
CONTACT
Pamela Lim
Manager, PR & Communications - Asia Pacific
Healthcare and Science
Tel: +65-6411-6737
Email: pamela.lim@thomsonreuters.com