Significant increase in scientific publications of Greek institutions in international scientific journals in 2019 and 2020

EKT has published the statistics and bibliometric indicators for the period 2006-2020
30.08.2022

Over the period 2006-2020, the scientific publications of Greek institutions continued to stand out in terms of quantity, quality and originality, receiving constantly more citations at international level. In particular, a large increase in the number of publications and citations was observed in 2019 and 2020. These data are based on indicators presented in the new publication of the National Documentation Centre (EKT), as part of national bibliometric statistics and the relevant publication series of EKT on publications in international journals from scientists working in Greek institutions.

The online version of EKT’s ‘Scientific Publications of Greek Institutions 2006-2020: Bibliometric analysis of publications in international scientific journals - Web of Science’ is available at http://report09.metrics.ekt.gr with interactive navigation through an extensive number of statistics, indicators and figures. Data on publications and citations presented in this publication were drawn from the international database Web of Science and cover the period 2006-2020

In 2020, 18,557 scientific publications from Greek institutions were recorded in international scientific journals, thus achieving the highest annual performance for the entire period 2006-2020. Furthermore, over the last five years 2016-2020, the publications from Greek institutions received 707,087 citations, strengthening further the steady upward trend of the previous years.

Impact factor of Greek institutions’ publications (average number of citations per publication) constantly increased throughout the period 2006-2020, and in fact at a significantly higher rate than the average performance of EU and OECD countries. Likewise, the percentage of publications from Greek institutions that received citations remained above the average of EU and OECD countries.

Since 2010, EKT has systematically recorded the international publication activity of scientists working at Greek institutions (Universities, Research Centres, Other Public Institutions, Public Hospitals, Private Health Institutions) and highlights particular elements of the Greek research system. Therefore, bibliometric indicators have been included in the country’s official statistical surveys. As EKT Director Dr. Evi Sahini points out, ‘bibliometric data that are provided by EKT can be used by public policy makers, scientific community and administrations of universities and other research institutions for the purposes of planning and implementation of national and institutional policies. These data contribute further to mapping and evaluation of Greek research activity’.

Production and impact of the publications of Greek institutions remain high

In 2020, 18,557 scientific publications of Greek institutions were recorded in international scientific journals. The last two years 2019 and 2020 of the period 2006-2020, recorded high growth rates: 9.7% (from 2018 to 2019) and 10.1% (from 2019 to 2020).

In terms of quantity, originality, quality and recognition, publications of Greek institutions continue to hold a dynamic position at international level.

The number of citations referred to publications of Greek institutions, which is also a main indicator of bibliometric data, continues to maintain the upward trend of all previous years. It is indicative that Greek publications reached 707,087citations in the five-year period 2016-2020, and this number constitutes a new historically high level.

In the five-year period 2016-2020, publications of Greek institutions received 9.38 citations per publication on average, surpassing the EU (7.82) and OECD (7.56) relevant performance. A significant increase in relation to the previous five years was also recorded in terms of relative impact factor of publications from Greek institutions, which was at 1.20 in relation to the EU and 1.24 in relation to the OECD.

In addition, the percentage of publications from Greek institutions that received citations - another indicator that captures the originality and quality of the research work and the recognition of scientific articles - was 77.8% for the period 2006-2020, a percentage above that of the EU (76.3%) and the OECD (75.6%).

In terms of quality of bibliometric indicators, it is very important to note that 1,536 publications of Greek organisations were ranked worldwide in the top-1% of publications with high impact, 6,003 publications in top-5%, 7,637 in top-10%, 10,472 publications in top-25% and 40,475 publications in top-50%. These data are translated to the following scores that Greek institutions’ publications achieve in the top-1%, 5%, 10%, 25% and 50% categories, respectively: 2.0%, 7.9%, 13.8%, 30.0% and 53.5%. This means that Greek performance exceeds global average in all these distribution categories, while it also exceeds the corresponding EU performance in the top-1% and top-10% categories.

The leading participation of Greek scientists in publications with high impact is also important. In 26.5% of publications with Greek participation that belong to the top-1% category, the first author’s affiliation is a Greek institution. In the top-5% category this percentage amounts to 36.8%, and in the top-10% to 41.4%.

Who produces the most scientific publications?

The most important categories of Greek institutions, in terms of number of publications, are Universities, Research Centres supervised by the General Secretariat for Research and Innovation (GSRI) and Public Hospitals.

In the five-year period 2016-2020, the share of Universities’ publications in the total number of publications of Greek institutions was 85.0% (68,012 publications), followed by Research Centres of the GSRI 14.1% (11,265 publications), and Public Hospitals 12.8% (10,272 publications), while the rest categories of institutions had shares below 5%.

Regarding the percentage of publications with citations, the first place was held by Research Centres of the GSRI (80.6% of publications received citations), followed by Other Public Research institutions (77.1%), Universities (74.0%) Private Health Organisations (70.3%), Private Non-Profit Institutions (69.8%) and Public Hospitals (67.8%).

In which scientific fields is Greek scientific production concentrated?

For 2020, most publications from Greek institutions were categorised in the ‘Natural Sciences’ main scientific field (42.2%), while 41.2% was related to ‘Medical & Health Sciences’. 22.0% to ‘Engineering and Technology’ 7.4% to ‘Social Sciences’, 11.3% to ‘Agricultural Sciences’ , and 2.2% to ‘Humanities’ .

In the five-year period 2016-2020, normalised impact factor of publications of Greek institutions exceeded the global average of 1 in almost all main scientific fields. The highest impact factor (field normalised citation score) (1.47) was recorded in ‘Medicine & Health Sciences’, followed by ‘Natural Sciences (1.26), ‘Engineering & Technology’ (1.20), ‘Agricultural Sciences’ (1.20), ‘Humanities’ (1.01) and ‘Social Sciences’(0.99).

Who do Greek researchers collaborate with?

During the fifteen years 2006-2020, the increase of the share of publications carried out in collaboration, either with Greek or foreign institutions, continued. More specifically, after 2008, there was an increase in collaborations with the international research community, where the percentage of publications with international collaboration rose from 36.8% in 2008 to 56.9% in 2020. Conversely, the percentage of publications carried out by only one Greek institution without collaborations, decreased constantly, reaching 21.5% in 2020.

Partnerships have a positive impact on publications’ impact factor. The highest impact factor values in all scientific fields and is met in publications that were produced with international collaborations, followed by those that were the result of Greek collaboration.Last were publications that were produced without collaboration.

Bibliometric performance of the Greek Regions

This publication includes data and indicators for bibliometric performance per Greek Region. The institutions located in the Region of Attica produce the most publications during the period 2006-2020, followed by institutions of the Regions of Central Macedonia and Crete.

Most citations are referred to publications of institutions of the Regions of Attica, Central Macedonia, Crete, Western Greece and Epirus. Of particular importance, however, is the fact that only Central Greece’s institutions (91.9%) achieved a rate of publications with citations higher than the national average (77.8%).

In terms of the number of scientific papers published by institutions per Region and ranked globally in the top-1%, 5%, 10%, 25% and 50% of publications with the highest impact worldwide, by year and scientific area in the five-year period 2016 -2020, the top-1% of publications with the highest worldwide impact included publications from all Greek Regions. On the other hand, publications of institutions from the Regions of North-South Aegean, Crete, Epirus, Central Greece, Thessaly, Central Macedonia, Attica and Western Greece exceeded the global average in all percentile categories (top-1%, 5%, 10%, 25% and 50%).

Based on normalised impact factor, all Regions’ publications are relevant to ‘Natural Sciences’. The highest impact factor is recorded for the publications of the institutions of the Region of Central Greece (1.72). In the scientific area ‘Engineering and Technology’ the publications of institutions of the North and South Aegean Regions had the highest impact (impact factor: 1.26). In the area of ‘Medical & Health Sciences’ publications of institutions from the Region of Crete had the highest impact (1.67). Institutions of the Region of Western Greece achieved the highest impact (1.68) in ‘Agricultural Sciences’. Respectively, publications of institutions of the Region of the Ionian Islands had the highest impact (1.07) in ‘Social Sciences’. Finally, in ‘Humanities’, the publications of the institutions in the Region of Crete had the highest impact (1.26).

The publication ‘Scientific Publications of Greek Institutions 2006-2020: Bibliometric analysis of publications in international scientific journals - Web of Science’ was carried out under the Sub-project 5 ‘Production of RIS3 indicators for the years 2016-2023’ for the Action ‘Installation of a Monitoring Mechanism for the implementation of the national strategy RIS3 - Collection and processing of Indicators’ implemented by the National Documentation Centre, within the framework of the Operational Programme ‘Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship & Innovation (NSRF 2014-2020), with the co-financing of Greece and the European Union-European Regional Development Fund.

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