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TAIWAN UNIVERSITIES RANKED AMONG THE TOP 1% OF RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS IN THE WORLD

In Five of 22 Categories At Least One Taiwan Institution Ranks Within the World’s Top 100 for 2003-2007 Period

Taipei, TAIWAN — April 28, 2008 — 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 2003 to December 2007. According to data derived from the ¹Essential Science Indicators SM (ESI) database of the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters, at least one Taiwan institution is ranked among the world’s top 100 in five of 22 categories, namely Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Materials Science, and Pharmacology & Toxicology. Engineering and Materials Science were two fields in which more than one Taiwan university was represented within the top 100.

Essential Science Indicators is a bi-monthly compilation of the ²Web of Science®, the world’s most authoritative citation database used at more than 3,500 research institutions around the world and in more than 40 countries. Derived from ISI Web of Science and monitored in Essential Science Indicators, this ranking of Taiwan universities allows for 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 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 five categories along with their world standing. Ranking of the universities is based on the total number of citations of their published research papers from January 2003 to December 2007.

 

Taiwan rank

World rank

Institution

Local Name

Cites

Papers

Average cites per paper

 
Agricultural Science

1	82	National Taiwan University	國立台灣大學	774	260	2.98
2	104	National Chungsing University	國立中興大學	652	256	2.55
3	299	National Taiwan Ocean University	國立台灣海洋大學	200	95	2.11

Chemistry

1	85	National Taiwan University	國立台灣大學	8377	1905	4.4
2	143	National Tsing Hua University	國立清華大學	6071	1279	4.75
3	269	National Cheng Kung University	國立成功大學	3928	1035	3.8
4	327	National Chiao Tung University	國立交通大學	3155	733	4.3
5	365	National Sun Yat-sen University	國立中山大學	2811	720	3.9

Engineering

1	51	National Taiwan University	國立台灣大學	3089	1718	1.8
2	52	National Cheng Kung University	國立成功大學	3085	1832	1.68
3	69	National Chiao Tung University	國立交通大學	2775	1673	1.66
4	146	National Tsing Hua University	國立清華大學	1627	1013	1.61
5	235	National Central University	國立中央大學	1112	650	1.71

Materials Science

1	37	National Tsing Hua University	國立清華大學	3347	883	3.79
2	52	National Taiwan University	國立台灣大學	2740	819	3.35
3	53	National Cheng Kung University	國立成功大學	2726	1154	2.36
4	98	National Chiao Tung University	國立交通大學	1835	496	3.7
5	221	National Central University	國立中央大學	991	282	3.51

Pharmacology & Toxicology

1	61	National Taiwan University	國立台灣大學	1638	334	4.9
2	135	Taipei Medical University	臺北醫學大學	1122	226	4.96
3	237	National Yang Ming University	國立陽明大學	711	164	4.34

 

In summary with the collating of all 22 categories, the top 10 Taiwan universities appear as follows:

 

All Fields

Taiwan rank	World rank	Institution	Local Name	Cites	Papers	Average cites per paper
1	171	National Taiwan University	國立台灣大學	53,185	14,623	3.64
2	372	National Cheng Kung University	國立成功大學	24,162	8,463	2.86
3	467	National Tsing Hua University	國立清華大學	18,514	5,649	3.28
4	507	National Yang Ming University	國立陽明大學	16,459	3,680	4.47
5	584	National Chiao Tung University	國立交通大學	14,057	5,929	2.37
6	737	National Central University	國立中央大學	10,251	3,488	2.94
7	766	National Sun Yat-sen University	國立中山大學	9,651	3,721	2.59
8	808	Chang Gung University	長庚大學	8,926	2,847	3.14
9	881	National Chungsing University	國立中興大學	7,760	3,177	2.44
10	890	Kaohsiung Medical University	高雄醫學大學	7,617	2,257	3.37

"The ranking result derived from ESI reflects the citation impact of Taiwan universities which has been growing significantly these past five years,” said Mr. Mark Garlinghouse, Vice President, Asia Pacific for the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters. "Methodological consistency is important to maintain statistical validity, especially for research evaluation. Since 2001, Scientific has been applying consistent methodology in ESI and continuously improving its quality. As the leading global provider of authoritative information to research communities, we are committed to ensuring the integrity of our information in research evaluation and supporting the local research community with value-added resources such as informed and balanced analysis to help them evaluate their academic positioning.”

Ms. Nobuko Miyairi, Senior Information Analyst for the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters, commented, “When interpreting these university rankings, it is important to consider the size of the universities as well as the research focus in their academic pursuit. Universities with a large number of researchers, such as National Taiwan University and National Cheng Kung University, tend to dominate these rankings if ranking is based on the number of papers published or citations received as a total. National Chiao Tung University, National Tsing Hua University and National Central University compete with these two biggest institutions in physical science and applied sciences.”

She added, “A strong focus in certain disciplines will give some universities an advantage in specific fields such as Pharmacology & Toxicology in the case of Taipei Medical University and National Yang Ming University. University administrators and evaluators are encouraged to consider not only domestic rankings but also the world ranking of their institutions, and the time-series change in these rankings to assess their academic progress as part of their strategic decision making process.” The Scientific business of Thomson Reuters provides information and knowledge to accelerate research, discovery and innovation. Our authoritative, accurate and timely information is essential for drug companies to discover new drugs and get them to market faster; researchers to find relevant papers and know what’s newly published in their subject; and businesses to optimize their intellectual property and find competitive intelligence. We create the research platforms and services of the future that will power our customers toward business and personal success. For more information, visit www.thomsonreuters.com.

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Notes to Editor:

¹Essential 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 Scientific 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.

²The Web of Science® provides seamless access to current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from nearly 10,000 of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. 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.