Thomson Scientific Announces Ranking of Top 20 Japanese Research Institutions for All Fields

Based on Citation Trends for Japanese Research Papers 1997-2007 according to Essential Science IndicatorsSM

Philadelphia, PA, USA — April 14, 2008 — Thomson Scientific, a division of Thomson Corporation, announced the Top 20 ranking of Japanese research institutions for all fields based on citation data of academic papers published from January 1997 to December 2007. This includes the Top 10 ranking for each of the four fields in which Japan’s contribution is particularly noteworthy.

Methodology

Database used for Analysis: Essential Science IndicatorsSM
ESI is a statistical database providing the data on publication and citation trends, which accumulates information on the researchers and research institutions ranked within the top 1 percent worldwide based on the number of citations received.

Period analyzed:
11 years from 1997-2007

Analysis:
Among world research institution rankings, only the Japanese institutions were extracted and retabulated in order to identify the top 20 Japanese research institutions (Table 1). Using the 22 categories defined in Essential Science Indicators, four categories (Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry and Biology/Biochemistry) were identified where Japanese institutions were ranked within the top 5 in the world (Table 2,3,4,5). Each table shows the domestic rankings in Japan, as well as the world-wide rankings.

Please see below for the rankings:

Table 1: All 22 categories (out of 3,759 Institutions)

Rank

World Rank

Institution Name

No. of Citations

No. of Papers

Average No. of Citations

1

12

University of Tokyo *

917797

71625

12.81

2

28

Kyoto University

638174

51808

12.32

3

33

Osaka University

566083

44708

12.66

4

65

Tohoku University

401985

42034

9.56

5

92

Japan Science and Technology Agency (Independent Administrative Institution)

320393

19363

16.55

6

104

Nagoya University

296621

28169

10.53

7

123

Kyushu University

267992

29106

9.21

8

139

Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Independent Administrative Institution)

240215

16658

14.42

9

142

Hokkaido University

239374

28014

8.54

10

162

Tokyo Institute of Technology

223871

24846

9.01

11

182

National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (Independent Administrative Institution)

204916

24148

8.49

12

223

University of Tsukuba

171924

17976

9.56

13

279

Hiroshima University

136637

16366

8.35

14

285

National Institutes of Natural Science*

132780

9981

13.30

15

299

Keio University

127466

12610

10.11

16

300

Chiba University

126932

12293

10.33

17

343

Kobe University

108292

11247

9.63

18

345

Okayama University

108056

13297

8.13

19

373

Tokyo Medical and Dental University

99197

7667

12.94

20

378

Kumamoto University

96184

7924

12.14

 

Table 2: Materials Science (out of 589 Institutions)

Rank

World Rank

Institution Name

No. of Citations

No. of Papers

Average No. of Citations

1

3

Tohoku University

35403

5665

6.25

2

4

National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (Independent Administrative Institution)

27320

4197

6.51

3

7

Osaka University

22464

3722

6.04

4

13

National Institute for Materials Science (Independent Administrative Institution)*

21432

3559

6.02

5

14

University of Tokyo

18951

3255

5.82

6

15

Kyoto University

18872

2849

6.62

7

18

Tokyo Institute of Technology

17061

2701

6.32

8

33

Kyushu University

12423

1691

7.35

9

40

Japan Science and Technology Agency (Independent Administrative Institution)

11149

1239

9.00

10

56

Nagoya University

8799

1630

5.40

 

Table 3: Physics (out of 642 Institutions)

Rank

World Rank

Institution Name

No. of Citations

No. of Papers

Average No. of Citations

1

2

Kyoto University

178642

15561

11.48

2

11

Tohoku University

116512

11011

10.58

3

22

Osaka University

87142

9711

8.97

4

26

Kyoto University

79358

8426

9.42

5

30

Tokyo Institute of Technology

70922

6575

10.79

6

48

High Energy Accelerator Research Organization*

56369

3529

15.97

7

50

National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (Independent Administrative Institution)

54566

6190

8.82

8

52

Japan Science and Technology Agency (Independent Administrative Institution)

53271

5273

10.10

9

64

Nagoya University

47567

4737

10.04

10

74

Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Independent Administrative Institution)

43770

4722

9.27

 

Table 4: Chemistry (out of 858 Institutions)

Rank

World Rank

Institution Name

No. of Citations

No. of Papers

Average No. of Citations

1

4

Kyoto University

115563

9324

12.39

2

5

University of Tokyo

113061

8525

13.26

3

11

Osaka University

80184

7427

10.80

4

15

Tohoku University

71629

6480

11.05

5

19

Tokyo Institute of Technology

69601

7445

9.35

6

23

National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (Independent Administrative Institution)

65592

6580

9.97

7

30

Japan Science and Technology Agency (Independent Administrative Institution)

54078

4194

12.89

8

33

Kyushu University

52601

4968

10.59

9

38

Hokkaido University

49359

4564

10.81

10

40

Nagoya University

49125

4050

12.13

 

Table 5: Biology & Biochemistry (out of 648 Institutions)

Rank

World Rank

Institution Name

No. of Citations

No. of Papers

Average No. of Citations

1

3

University of Tokyo

127899

6797

18.82

2

25

Kyoto University

84784

4923

17.22

3

27

Osaka University

75820

4445

17.06

4

44

Japan Science and Technology Agency (Independent Administrative Institution)

51026

2389

21.36

5

68

Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Independent Administrative Institution)

43109

2340

18.42

6

86

Nagoya University

36202

2495

14.51

7

102

Kyushu University

33285

2485

13.39

8

115

Tohoku University

30173

2236

13.49

9

124

Hokkaido University

28398

2610

10.88

10

159

University of Tsukuba

24750

1592

15.55

Highlights of Analysis
  • It is apparent that the overall number of both research papers and citations has been gradually increasing in the past few years, and that research output from Japan’s top research institutions have been growing more active.
  • Overall, no major change is seen in the institution ranking compared to previous years. It is observed that most of the research institutions closer to the top of the Japanese rankings are ranked higher in world ranking while maintaining their domestic status. On the other hand, there were some research institutions ranked lower in the world despite maintaining their domestic ranks.
  • As with last year, the government-affiliated research institutions remain strong in the rankings. Most of these institutions had become independent government agencies in recent years.
  • Tohoku University, the University of Tokyo and Kyoto University, maintained their No. 1 ranks in Materials Science, Physics, and Chemistry respectively, and retained their positions as last year in the world rankings. In Biology/Biochemistry, the world rank of the University of Tokyo rose from the 5 th to the 3 rd. while maintaining top place in the domestic ranking.
  • Please refer to the commentary which continues below in “Organization Strategy” and Ranking.

Research papers that received the World's Top 1% citation rates

Essential Science Indicators is used by research institutions around the world; it is a statistical analysis database for measuring research performance through publication and citation trends. At the top of each table, the number of world’s top 1% institutions is shown in parentheses. In Table 2 – Materials Science, for example, 589 institutions were extracted and collected as being in the world’s top 1% based on the number of citations received.


“Organizational Strategy” and Institutional Ranking

The ranking of research institutions in Essential Science Indicators is generated by processing affiliation information as described by authors. By unifying subsidiary and former organization names and reflecting this in the ranking, some research institutions can appear higher in the rankings as a whole. It is not unusual for research institutions to utilize this kind of objective data in their organizational strategy.


How to interpret a No. 1 World Ranking

The Max Planck Institute in Germany and the Chinese Academy of Sciences are cases in point. As a result of unifying various research institutions under the umbrella of the Max Planck Society or the Chinese Academy of Sciences, they rank in the top 1% of many categories in Essential Science Indicators. Of the four categories addressed in this analysis, the Max Planck Institute maintained its world’s top ranking from the previous year in Chemistry and Physics, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences is ranked top in Materials Science. However, this is the result of unifying all of the research institutions umbrellas affiliated. It is not appropriate to consider thatthe research performance of universities such as Tohoku University (in Materials Science) and the University of Tokyo (in Physics), which were ranked No. 1 in the world until 2004, have declined.


About this Ranking Analysis

The analysis reflects any mergers of universities or research institutions through the end of December 2007; in cases where there were multiple ranked institutions under subsidiary organization or former organization names, they were standardized under the current name of its parent organizations. Research institutions with an asterisk in the tables indicate such standardization was applied. Each table shows the ranking by the total number of citations received by papers published by each institution (Number of Citations). It is also meaningful to sort the ranking data based on other criteria such as the number of papers published or the average number of citations (the number of citations per paper). None of the rankings is absolute, but serves as a general indication as to which research institutions are producing outstanding research work that is attracting worldwide attention.


Notes to Editors

About Essential Science Indicators and Other Sources
Essential Science Indicators , which is the source of this analysis, is a statistical database which analyzes world’s publication and citation trends; the database is updated every two months and provided via the Internet through subscription agreements at the organization level; we do not currently provide agreements to individuals. Various citation analyses are demonstrated by the company headquarters in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania using Essential Science Indicators as source data; this is published free of charge on ScienceWatch.com. For more information, visit:


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