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Thomson Reuters Announces Ranking of Top 20 Japanese Research Institutions for All Fields 1999-2009

The University of Tokyo retains No. 1 national ranking and maintains 11th position in world ranking; government-funded institutions performed well in ranking

 

Philadelphia, PA, London, UK — April 13, 2010 — Thomson Reuters has announced the annual Top 20 ranking of research institutions in Japan based on citation data of academic papers published over a period of 11 years from January 1999 to December 2009. This year, the University of Tokyo ranked No. 1 overall nationwide and maintained its 11th position in the world ranking from the preceding year. Government-funded institutions performed well in the world ranking.

The data is extracted from Essential Science IndicatorsSM.(ESI) which is used by research institutions around the world; it is a statistical database for measuring research performance through publication and citation trends. ESI accumulates information on researchers and research institutions ranked within the top 1 percent worldwide based on the number of citations received.

Among world research institution rankings, only Japanese institutions were extracted and re-tabulated in order to identify the top 20 Japanese research institutions (Table 1). Using the 22 categories defined in ESI, six categories (Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology/Biochemistry, Immunology, Pharmacology & Toxicology) were identified where Japanese institutions were ranked within the top five and top 200 in the world (Tables 2-7).

Government-funded institutions, including Japan Science and Technology Agency, RIKEN Institute of Physical And Chemical Research, and The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology showed improvement in their world ranking.

Highlights of Ranking Analysis


  • In this year’s survey, Japanese research institutions ranked amongst the top five  in the field of “immunology” and “pharmacology/toxicology” for the first time since the annual announcement of rankings began in 2002.
  • Research institutions, which have distinguished themselves strongly in immunology, pharmacology and toxicology and are newly ranked within the top five institutions in these fields worldwide, hold their own against universities and institutions.
  • There were no major changes in the ranking, but there is an apparent growth in the citation numbers which is in proportion to the increase in articles. This has resulted in a rise in the average citation number of each institution.

Here is a listing of the top 20 overall national research institutions based on the number of times the articles were cited and the category ranking of national research institutions.

Table 1: General (Out of 4,272 institutions)

Rank

World Rank

Institution Name

No. of Citations

No. of Papers

Average No. of Citations

1

11

The University of Tokyo

1,041,057

71,838

14.49

2

31

Kyoto University

732,732

52,735

13.89

3

37

Osaka University

628,365

44,707

14.06

4

65

Tohoku University

473,014

42,509

11.13

5

67

Japan Science and Technology Agency (Independent Administrative Institution)

462,433

22,899

20.19

6

110

Nagoya University

338,129

28,093

12.04

7

124

Kyushu University

312,666

29,457

10.61

8

129

RIKEN Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Independent Administrative Institution)

306,754

17,657

17.37

9

146

Hokkaido University

284,189

28,809

9.86

10

151

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

270,838

26,247

10.32

11

171

Tokyo Institute of Technology

255,204

24,825

10.28

12

231

University of Tsukuba

197,384

17,911

11.02

13

287

Keio University

159,647

13,893

11.49

14

292

National Institutes of Natural Sciences*

157,795

9,912

15.92

15

298

Hiroshima University

155,650

16,356

9.52

16

311

Chiba University

148,811

12,659

11.76

17

343

Okayama University

130,575

13,558

9.63

18

356

Kobe University

124,372

11,832

10.51

19

384

Tokyo Medical and Dental University

114,439

7,930

14.43

20

396

Kanazawa University

108,928

9,374

11.62

For Tables 2-7, please refer to PDF.

For the press release in Japanese, please click here.
http://science.thomsonreuters.jp/press/releases/esi2010/

Note to Editors:

Research papers that are cited amongst the world’s top 1%
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.  For example, at the top of each table, 637 institutions were extracted and collected as being in the world’s top 1% based on the number of citations received in materials science (table 2). For more information on Essential Science Indicators, visit http://sciencewatch.com/about/met/.

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 institution 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 Science, 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 Physics, and Chinese Academy of Sciences in Materials Science and Chemistry.  However, this is the result of unifying all of the research institutions umbrellas affiliated.  It is not accurate therefore, to surmise or conclude that the 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 2009; 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.

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