2011 Taiwan Research Report

8/9/2019 2011 Taiwan Research Report

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Taiwan Research Report 2011


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Contents

Introduction ................................................................................................................ 1

Research and Collaboration in Taiwan.......................................................................... 3

I. Methodology ............................................................................................... 3

II. Research Productivity and Impacts ............................................................... 5

III. Performance by Fields of Research ............................................................... 9

IV. Benchmarking against Leading Scientific Nations and Six Asian Nations ..... 11

V Main Collaborating Countries and Institutions ........................................... 24

Conclusions ............................................................................................................... 26


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Introduction

The onset of the knowledge economy

has led to a gradual shift in the

Taiwanese governments S&T policy

from the efficiency-driven approach,

which focuses on steady growth of

existing technologies towards the

innovation-driven approach, which

emphasizes on the development of new

technologies. With the

innovation-driven approach, Taiwan has

been devoted to integrating various

resources and establishing a

comprehensive knowledge base for its

development needs in innovation

exploration. This is different from the

bottom-up model driven by dispersing

resources in the past but needs a

top-downapproach directed by

government to develop innovative

growth strategies.

The Taiwanese government envisions

the country to be a world leader in

green technology and smart lifestyles

by 2020, according to the R.O.C. WhitePaper on Science and Technology

(2011 2014). The main strategies

include actively identifying new

opportunities for Taiwan in economic

development, enhancing domestic

demand and export performance of

Taiwanese products, and encouraging

private-sector investment to expand job

opportunities in Taiwan. To drive

industrial innovation, the government

has implemented the national-scale

Technology Development Programs

(TDPs) for effective coordination of R&D

resources in resolving major social

problems and issues that Taiwanese

citizens face in their basic living needs.

Since 2010, six major TDPs have been

launched in networking and

communications, smart electronics

systems, nanotechnology, energy,

biomedicine, and digital collections and

digital learning. Among them, the

National Biomedicine Technology

Development Program is made to

integrate resources of two previous

national programs and coordinate with

the new launched Diamond Action Plan

for Biotech Take off. Based on the

achievements of the previous program

for System on Chip (SoC) Development,

the National Program for Intelligent

Electronics (NPIE) is developed to

promote Taiwans R&D capabilities in

the fields of automotive electronics,green energy electronics, and 3C

(Computing, Communications and

Consumer electronics), and lead

Taiwanese semiconductor industry

towards a greater focus on

cross-industry applications. The National

Science and Technology Program for

Energy is made to have effective use of

clean coal technology, carbon capture


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and carbon storage, along with smart

power grid and meter reading

technology in Taiwan. The specific goal

is to improve nuclear energy technology

and offshore wind power generation

technology to reduce at least 5% of the

overall national carbon dioxide

emissions by 2050.

In terms of basic scientific research

development, Taiwanese government

has been keen to implement theAcademic Summit Program, which

targets on research excellence and aims

to enable Taiwan to cultivate world-class

scholars in scientific fields within the

next ten years. To accelerate the talent

development of Taiwanese researchers,

the National Science Council (NSC) of

Taiwan implements several additional

programs, such as Burnishing Program

and Dragon Gate program. The former

program aims to identify outstanding

Taiwanese scholars and encourage them

to participate in international academic

organizations and activities; the later

program is made to identify key research

areas that Taiwan needs to focus on and

sponsor outstanding Taiwanese

scientists to undertake research abroad

at the worlds leading research institutes

in these fields, Moreover, the NSC

encourages the establishment of

international research centers in Taiwan.

There are attempts to build up advancedresearch facilities and attract eminent

researchers to undertake research in

Taiwan.

This report is to examine Taiwans

academic capabilities and development

trends. It uses comprehensive, all-round

statistical data to demonstrate the

foundations that Taiwan has built up in

terms of its R&D capabilities.


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Research and Collaboration in Taiwan

I. Methodology

The report is based on the databases

provided by Thomson Reuters, including

the Web of Science (WoS), National

Science Indicators (NSI), and Essential

Science Indicators (ESI). ThomsonReuters indexes approximately 10,500

international scholarly journals, which

are classified into 22 fields (see Table 1)

and 249 subject categories. The

contents of these databases range over

180 countries, providing an extensive

source of various analysis indicators

used to explore the output status of

these subject categories (see Table 2).

The examination of these analytical datahelp us better understand the academic

R&D capabilities in Taiwan, of the extent

to which scientific research in Taiwan is

on a par with other countries, and of the

state of collaboration among universities

and research institutions. Other

socioeconomic data related to Taiwan

are collected from the websites of the

Department of Statistics, Ministry of

Education, the Statistical Office,

Department of Health, and the

Directorate General of Budget,

Accounting and Statistics, Executive

Yuan.

In addition, this report compares Taiwan

to India, China, South Korea, Japan and

Singapore (which are collectively

referred to as the Six Asian Nations),

as well as to the U.S., France, the U.K.,

Australia, Germany, and Canada, which

have produced significant quantities of

academic research papers. The

demographic data of these major

countries are sourced from the WorldBank website.

Table 1

The 22 FieldsUsed in this Report

Agricultural Sciences

Biology & Biochemistry

Chemistry

Clinical Medicine

Computer Science

Economics & Business

Engineering

Environment/Ecology

Geosciences

Immunology

Materials Science

Mathematics

Microbiology

Molecular Biology & GeneticsMultidisciplinary

Neuroscience & Behavior

Pharmacology & Toxicology

Physics

Plant & Animal Science

Psychiatry/Psychology

Social Sciences, general

Space Science


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Table 2

The Indicators Used in this Report

Indicator Calculation Method SignificanceNumber of papers The types of documents

include articles, reviews,

and notes.

Denotes the academic output of individual countries

and individual research institutions

Proportion of highly

cited papers to all

academic papers by

a given country

(top 1% and top

5%)

The number of

highly-cited papers (i.e.

papers that are among the

top 1% or top 5% most

cited papers worldwide) is

divided by the total

number of papers by a

given country.

The number of highly-cited papers that a country

produces as a percentage of all academic papers

produced by that country can be taken to represent

that countrys ability to produce cutting-edge

research. Take the 5% level as an example. If the

value is greater than 5% for a given country, it is

indicated that that country produced high quality

research papers more than the world average. Use of

data for the top 1% of most highly cited papers

employs an even more rigorous definition of what

constitutes high-quality research.

Activity Index (AI) The ratio of the share of a

given field in the output of

a given country to the

share of the same field in

the world total output.

The Activity Index (AI) indicates how active a given

country is in a particular academic field. A value

greater than1 indicates that the country has more

academic output in a particular field than the global

average; a value smaller than 1 indicates output in

that field lower than the global average.

Relative

Specialization Index

(RSI)

RSI= The Relative Specialization Index (RSI) is used to

analyze the characteristics of the research

topology of individual countries. The RSI is a value

between1 and 1. A RSI value of 0 indicates that the

share of all papers produced in that country that

relate to that particular field is exactly the same as

the global average. A RSI value greater than 0

indicates that that the research undertaken in that

country is more concentrated in that particular field

than is the case for the world as a whole; a RSI value

of less than 0 indicates that the research undertaken

in that country is less concentrated in that particular

field than is the case for the world as a whole.

Relative Citation

Impact

The impact of papers from

a particular country in a

particular field is divided

by the average impact for

all papers in that field.

The Relative Citation Impact shows that the impact

of a county in a given field relative to that of the

world. A value greater than 1 indicates that the

impact of the countrys research output in that field

is higher than the global average; a value of less than1 indicates that the impact of the country is lower

than the global average in that field.

Number of

Co-authored Papers

(co-authorship

between two

countries or two

institutions)

The number of papers

co-authored by different

countries or by different

institutions. Each paper is

counted for once, no

matter how many authors

from the same country or

same institutions are

shown in that paper.

The number of co-authored papers shows the

intensity of research collaboration among countries

and among institutions. The higher the number of

co-authored papers, the greater the intensity of

research collaboration.


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II. Research Productivity and Impacts

Taiwan has been making steady progress in academic research over the past threedecades. In 1981, only 537 academic papers were published by Taiwanese authors ,

but by 2010, this figure hasrisen to over 23,000, which takes up 2.05% of the world s

research output.

As the volume of publications included in the Thomson Reuters databases tends to

increase steadily over time, looking only at the absolute number of papers from a

given country may lead to an overestimation of that nations real research

performance. We, therefore, examine relative growth in the number of papers for a

country, taking 1991 as the baseline year, where the index equals 100. As Figure 1

shows, while Japan and the U.S. has remained more or less flat in the number of

papers, other countries, including South Korea, China, Singapore and India have allseen significant growth in the volume.

Fig. 1 Volume of publications compared to 1991=100

In the early 1990s, Taiwan produced only a few thousand academic papers a year. By

2001, this figure had risen to over 10,000 papers a year and had climbed to over

20,000 by 2008 (see Table 3). Although the number is still lagged behind that of other

developed nations, the ongoing increase in the volume shows a continuing rise in

Taiwans research capability.


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Table 3

Volume of annual publications by country, 19912010

Source: National Science Indicators on Diskette, Standard Version, 1981-2010

An increasing trend is shown in the analysis of research productivity in 5-year

windows from 1991 to 2010. As Figure 2 illustrates, Taiwan (along with Singapore,

South Korea and India) has continued to see steady growth, while Japan has tended

to fall off in recent years. China has posted dramatic growth in the most recent

five-year period. Figure 3 shows that over the past 20 years the average growth rate

for Taiwan has been in excess of 11%, higher than the figures for Asia as a whole

(7.49%), the European Union (3.97%), and the world as a whole (3.66%). There has

thus been a gradual, steady increase in the prominence of Taiwanese academic

research on the global stage.

Taiwan China India Japan SingaporeSouth

Korea

Australia Canada France Germany UK USA

1991 3,281 8,736 15,150 47,215 850 1,932 13,632 29,702 33,306 46,079 50,414 230,759

1992 4,310 10,330 15,291 53,179 1,158 2,480 14,654 31,731 36,465 48,225 54,500 238,745

1993 4,892 11,511 15,386 53,474 1,384 3,138 15,292 31,892 37,545 48,393 55,406 240,249

1994 6,115 13,078 15,752 58,528 1,647 4,367 16,819 33,822 41,448 53,618 61,411 257,816

1995 7,002 15,671 15,967 62,157 2,016 6,061 18,551 34,742 43,705 56,469 64,279 267,395

1996 7,861 18,267 16,101 65,441 2,028 7,553 19,104 34,623 45,219 59,546 67,202 264,797

1997 8,126 20,140 15,398 65,686 2,390 8,759 19,601 33,248 45,822 62,187 65,016 260,191

1998 8,957 22,074 16,503 70,694 2,666 10,732 20,963 33,109 48,550 67,225 69,036 256,408

1999 9,423 26,649 17,669 72,466 3,249 12,175 21,738 34,095 49,249 67,127 70,406 257,359

2000 9,652 30,031 16,538 72,029 3,634 13,448 21,386 33,649 48,065 67,272 71,775 255,099

2001 11,150 34,216 18,157 74,471 4,087 15,881 22,070 33,712 49,396 69,181 71,161 262,000

2002 11,407 39,446 19,119 73,374 4,531 17,073 22,317 34,235 47,653 67,505 68,813 259,410

2003 13,128 47,998 21,487 80,521 5,225 21,088 24,790 38,566 52,733 73,106 75,012 283,333

2004 13,640 54,904 21,600 73,459 5,516 22,674 24,251 37,686 48,877 69,270 71,915 271,963

2005 16,765 73,481 26,093 80,538 6,648 27,766 28,289 44,786 56,120 79,094 80,794 307,247

2006 17,963 83,167 27,780 76,623 6,874 28,382 29,303 45,913 54,784 77,396 80,224 305,325

2007 18,746 90,206 29,804 73,793 6,602 27,362 29,522 46,372 53,581 75,870 81,125 300,213

2008 22,636 113,102 38,778 79,594 7,746 35,448 36,542 52,776 63,627 86,486 89,685 335,720

2009 24,315 127,176 40,135 78,564 8,516 38,226 37,869 54,156 63,970 88,056 89,472 331,790

2010 23,715 134,697 40,711 72,607 8,811 39,397 38,753 53,519 62,324 86,978 90,004 330,339


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Fig. 2 Volume of publications by country and region in 5-year windows, 19912010

Fig. 3 Annual Growth Rate by country and region, 19912010

Taiwans research productivity is rather outstanding if a countrys demographic scale

is taken into consideration in the analysis. In 2010, Taiwan had a total population of

approximately 23.16 million people, and produced a total of 23,715 academic papers,

indicating an average output of 1,024 papers per million people. The figure is higher

than that of South Korea (788), Japan (570) and China (93). See Figure 4. From 2006

to 2010, Taiwan has achieved 32% growth rate in the number of papers, while there

are only less than 2% growth in population. The increase in Taiwans productivity is

thus largely attributable to an increase in the average number of papers produced

per person, rather than to the population size. Taiwan scores an upward trend by an


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annual growth rate of 7.8% in average, on a par with Singapore but higher than the

U.S. (1.24%). Both Taiwan and Singapore can fairly claim to be bona fide Asian

knowledge economies.

Fig. 4 Published papers per population, 2006-2010

In the analysis of top level research, it is indicated that Taiwan held a relatively small

share of highly cited papers, compared to other Asian countries. As Figures 5 shows,Taiwan lagged behind Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, over the periods of

1996-2000 and 2001-2005, although it exceeded South Korea in 2006-2010, in terms

of top 5% highly cited papers. A similar finding is also observed in F igure 6. Taiwan did

not have outstanding performance in the share of top 1% highly cited papers, yet it

remains growing the number throughout the periods.

Fig. 5/6 The share of top 5 and top 1% highly cited papers for the Six Asian Nations,

1991-2010


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III. Performance by Fields of Research

In order to develop an in-depth picture of Taiwans research focuses, this reportemploys the Relative Specialization Index (RSI) to analyze the country s research

output from 2006 to 2010. According to Glanzel (2000), four basic patterns in

research profile can be identified with the analysis of RSI:

Type 1: Western Model, which is the characteristic pattern of European and North

American countries, with a concentration on clinical medicine and biomedical

research;

Type 2: Characteristic pattern of former socialist economies in transition (such as

China), with a concentration on physics and chemistry;

Type 3:Bioenvironmental Model, which is commonly seen in developing nations and

countries that are heavily dependent on their natural resources (including Australiaand South Africa), where there is a concentration on biology, earth sciences, and

space sciences;

Type 4:Japanese Model, a model which is typical not only of Japan but also for other

developed Asian economies, with a concentration on engineering and chemistry.

Figure 7 shows that Taiwan is relatively concentrated in computer science (0.41),

engineering (0.39), materials science (0.21), physics (0.13), and economics (0.11),

over the past year of 2006-2010. With the focus on engineering and

engineering-related fields, Taiwans publication profile can be identified as the Type 4

in Glanzels classification scheme. It is also found that Taiwan has remarkable research

performance in the field of economics & business. The share of Taiwans total output

in economics & business is higher than the global average.

Fig. 7 RSI by fields for Taiwan, 2006-2010


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Table 4 shows the top ten fields where Taiwan accounted for the largest shares

of publications in the world from 2006 to 2010. As it presents, Taiwan is strong in

engineering, and natural sciences, with the world ranking at 9th

place in computer

science and in engineering, and 10thplace in materials science. The high performancein these fields is closely linked to the impressive development of the information and

communications technology (ICT) sector in Taiwan. In the comparison between the

periods of 2001-2005 and 2006-2010, the rapid growth rates of 191.01% and 180.67%

are found in economics & business, and social science, respectively. In natural

sciences, Taiwan has maintained a steady, respectable performance in both physics

and chemistry, where it ranks 13th

and 16th

in the world.

Table 4

Top ten fields for Taiwan with largest shares of publications in the world

Subject Areas 2001-2005 2006-2010No. of

papers

Global

Ranking

No. of

papers

Global

Ranking

Share of

papers

Growth

Rate (%)

Computer science 3,544 11 6,126 9 4.76 72.86

Engineering 12,054 10 20,995 9 4.53 74.17

Materials science 4,812 13 7,796 10 3.07 62.01

Economics & business 779 16 2,267 11 2.48 191.01

Physics 8,308 17 12,928 13 2.6 55.61

Social sciences 1,112 21 3,121 14 1.21 180.67

Pharmacology &

toxicology

1,438 16 1,959 15 1.86 36.23

Chemistry 8,493 16 11,259 16 1.78 32.57

Physics 1,410 19 2,389 17 1.58 69.43

Clinical medicine 12,158 18 18,768 18 1.65 54.37

All fields 66,090 18 107,375 16 1.99 62.47


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IV. Benchmarking against Leading Scientific Nations and Six Asian

Nations

This section benchmarks Taiwan against leading scientific nations by the indicator of

share of a countrys research output by fields.

Generally Asian countries are strong in

engineering, clinical medicine, physics, chemistry, and materials science. Table 5

shows the share of a country s research output by subject fields in the Six Asian

Nations from 2006 to2010. Taiwan focuses on the research of engineering (19.55%),

clinical medicine (17.48%), physics (12.04%) and chemistry (10.49%), aggregating

59.56% of the total of 107,375 papers in these four fields. China produced a total of

538,348 papers and 48.9% among them are related to chemistry (22.07%), physics

(15.29%) and engineering (11.54%). Of the 177,208 papers produced by India, 54.91%

of them are in chemistry (21.96%), physics (11.58%), clinical medicine (10.88%), and

engineering (10.49%). Japan concentrated in clinical medicine (20.98%), chemistry

(13.90%) and physics (13.79%), which aggregately account for 48.67% of its total of

381,181 papers. Singapore emphasizes on engineering (17.84%), clinical medicine

(15.48%), physics (14.35%) and chemistry (12.15%), accounted for 59.82% a total of

38,549 papers. Similarly South Korea focuses on clinical medicine (16.74%), physics

(13.66%), engineering (13.53%) and chemistry (12.99%), which together accounted

for 56.92% of its total of 168,815 papers during the period.

Table 5

The share of a countrys research output by fields, 2006-2010Field Taiwan China India Japan Singapore South Korea

Total Publications 107,375 548,348 177,208 381,181 38,549 168,815

Engineering 19.55% 11.54% 10.49% 8.11% 17.84% 13.53%

Clinical Medicine 17.48% 8.56% 10.88% 20.98% 15.48% 16.74%

Physics 12.04% 15.29% 11.58% 13.79% 14.35% 13.66%

Chemistry 10.49% 22.07% 21.96% 13.90% 12.15% 12.99%

Materials Science 7.26% 10.76% 8.01% 6.30% 7.92% 9.11%

Computer Science 5.71% 2.86% 1.53% 1.76% 5.52% 4.70%

Biology & Biochemistry 3.70% 4.07% 5.49% 7.09% 4.31% 5.24%

Social Sciences, general 2.91% 1.02% 1.04% 0.69% 3.47% 1.61%

Plant & Animal Science 2.53% 3.64% 6.54% 5.18% 1.73% 3.22%

Mathematics 2.22% 4.12% 1.82% 1.91% 2.01% 2.12%

Economics & Business 2.11% 0.66% 0.41% 0.54% 2.76% 1.01%Geosciences 1.96% 3.25% 3.11% 2.54% 0.58% 1.31%

Environment/Ecology 1.88% 2.47% 2.74% 1.56% 1.24% 1.46%

Pharmacology &

Toxicology1.82% 1.77% 3.25% 2.78% 1.50% 2.86%

Molecular Biology &

Genetics1.60% 1.86% 1.51% 3.27% 3.48% 2.09%

Agricultural Sciences 1.57% 1.49% 4.10% 1.69% 0.49% 2.28%

Neuroscience & Behavior 1.40% 1.30% 0.97% 2.97% 1.49% 1.68%

Psychiatry/Psychology 1.18% 0.43% 0.27% 0.64% 1.43% 0.52%

Microbiology 1.01% 1.15% 2.11% 1.83% 1.36% 2.32%

Space Science 0.77% 0.87% 1.15% 1.23% 0.04% 0.74%

Immunology 0.76% 0.62% 0.67% 1.17% 0.79% 0.74%Multidisciplinary 0.05% 0.18% 0.38% 0.08% 0.08% 0.06%


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This section benchmarks Taiwan against leading scientific nations by the indicator of

Relative Citation Impact (RCI). It is addressed to examine the level of impact that

Taiwan is able to exert through its academic research, compared to the global average.

Figure 8 illustrates the RCI for Taiwan and the selected countries over the five-year

period of 2006-2010; the red line denotes the global average. It shows that generallythe giant countries including the U.S. (1.46), the U.K. (1.42), Germany (1.33), Canada

(1.28), France (1.23) and Australia (1.19) have a significantly higher level of impact

than the Asian nations. Singapore (1.07) and Japan (0.99) have the highest RCI values

among the six Asian Nations; Taiwan (0.72), South Korea (0.74) and China (0.70) are

approximately at the same level.

Fig. 8 Relative citation impact by countries, 20062010 (Global average = 1)

Note: Relative citation impact is calculated using field-normalized citation rates

(including self-citation). The arts & humanities field and multidisciplinary field

were excluded from the calculations due to the small number of papers.

Figure 9 indicates the changes of the RCI values for the six Asian Nations between

1991 and 2010. Overall, the RCI in these countries has tended to rise steadily over thepast twenty years. Among them, Japan has had the relative high RCI value of 0.99

close to the global average and been retaining steady growth trend. Singapore has

shown a significant increase of its RCI value from 0.69 in 2001-2005 to 1.07 in

2006-2010, bringing Singapore as the only country with RCI value higher than the

global average during the investigated time periods. South Korea and Taiwan are

approximately at the same level in RCI, followed by China and India.

Relativecitationimpact

U.S. SingaporeAustraliaFranceCanadaGerman

U.K Japan South

Korea

Taiwan China India


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Fig. 9 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations by periods, 1991-2010

This report zooms in the RCI values for Taiwan and the Six Asian Nations in 21fields.

Agricultural Sciences

Fig. 10 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Agricultural Sciences,

1991-2010

Almost all the selected Asian countries, except India, have the RCI values near or

more than the global average, and there is a general upward trend since 1991. See

Figure 10. Taiwan has reached the global average level since the period of 2001-2005,

and got an even higher RCI of 1.28 in the latest period of 2006-2010. China also made

a progress in the same period, while South Korea and Japan were relatively stable in

this field. Singapore shows a notable trend in RCI with the values higher than the

global average. This can be accounted for the nations small number of papers in

Agricultural Sciences. Singapore is characterized by its outstanding performance in

quality rather than quantity in this field.

Relativecitationimpa

ct

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan

Global average

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan



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Clinical Medicine

Fig. 13 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in the Clinical Medicine,1991-2010

Over the past twenty years, the six Asian nations have low RCI values relative to the

global average in clinical medicine. Only Singapore exceeded the value of 1 in

2006-2010, while Japan consistently retain in the top in the first three periods. See

Figure 13. Taiwan shows a steady increase in the value and reachedto 0.76 in the

latest period. Similar trend is observed in South Korea in this field.

Computer Science

Fig. 14 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Computer Science,

1991-2010

Taiwan has a significantly rising value of RCI in the computer science field in the

recent years. The value almost reached to the global average in 2006-2010, as it is

illustrated in Figure 14. Singapore has shown strong growth, with reaching to a

highest value of 1.02 among the six Asian nations in the most recent five-year period.

In the same period, China also showed a significant growth trend, with a rising value

of RCI to 0.79.

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan

Relativecitationimpa

ct

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan



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Economics & Business

Fig. 15 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Economics & Business,1991-2010

In economics & business, Singapore and China both showed a significant increase in

the value of RCI throughout the investigated periods. Although lagging behind China

in 2006-2000 and 2001-2005, Singapore exceeded China in 2006-2010 and presented

the highest RIC value among the six countries. See Figure 15. Taiwan had a gradual

growth trend, in spite of the dip in the period of 2001-2005. India and South Korea

had shown the decreasing value in the first and last three periods, respectively, yet

their RCI values were still higher than that of Taiwan.

Engineering

Fig. 16 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Engineering, 1991-2010

Of the six Asian nations, Singapore has displayed the most notable performance in the

field of engineering. Its RCI value rose above the global average in the period of

2001-2005, and reached 1.29 in 2006-2010. See Figure 16. An increasing pattern is

observed in all the investigated nations, except Japan. Taiwan, China and India

showed particularly pronounced growth, with the values approaching the globalaverage in the most recent five-year period.

Relativecitationimpac

t

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan



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Environment/Ecology

Fig. 17 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Environment/Ecology,1991-2010

Singapore has displayed a significant growth rate in research in environment and

ecology. Its RCI has risen from 0.32 in the period of 1991-1995 to 1.29 in the period of

2006-2010. See Figure 17. Taiwan, China, and South Korea showed a relatively steady

pattern in this field. Japan grew modestly and remained its leading position among

the Asian countries.

Geosciences

Fig. 18 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Geosciences, 1991-2010

As Figure 18 shows, Taiwan exhibited the second highest RCI in geosciences,

surpassed only by Japan over the past decades. Its indicator value rose steadily to

reach 0.88 in the period of 2001-2005. South Korea, China, and Singapore are

relatively unstable in this field. The values fluctuated over time.


China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan



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Molecular Biology & Genetics

Fig. 23 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Molecular Biology &Genetics, 1991-2010

Except Singapore, all of the Asian nations held a RCI value below the global average in

molecular biology and genetics throughout the periods. See Figure 23. Singapore

showed the value of 1.32 in the period of 1996-2000, and remained the level of 1.17

in the most recent period. Japan exhibited the second highest values among the six

countries in this field and continues the growing trend over the decades. Taiwan and

China are similar not only in the feature of values but also in growth pattern.

Neuroscience & Behavior

Fig. 24 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Neuroscience &

Behavior, 1991-2010

Singapore and Japan have remarkable impact in the field of neuroscience & behavior,

as Figure 24 illustrates. Singapore had the RCI value of above the global average in the

most recent period, while Japan presented a steady increase in this indicator over the

periods. Taiwan and South Korea both had a relative citation impact of around 0.7 in

the period of 2006-2010.

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan


China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan

Re

lativecitationimpact


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Pharmacology &Toxicology

Fig. 25 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Pharmacology &Toxicology, 1991-2010

All of the six Asian nations have increased their impact in reasearch of pharmacology

& toxicology. Taiwan had the RCI value smaller than 0.6 in the period of 1991-1995

and then reached 0.8 by the period of 2006-2010. South Korea, China, and India all

presented a steady growth trend in the indicator. Singapore showed a dramatic

increase over the past decades. See Figure 25.

Physics

Fig. 26 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Physics, 1991-2010

Among the Asian countries, Japan plays a leading role in physics, with relative high RCI

values. See Figure 26. For the rest of five countries, all of them have made great

progress in the past decases. Taiwan and China maintained a steady increase

throughout the periods, while South Korea and India showed a dip in the most recent

period.

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan


China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan



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Plant & Animal Science

Fig. 27 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Plant & Animal Science,1991-2010

Of the six Asian nations, Singapore and Japan performed the best in plant & animal

science. They both held the RCI values higher than the global average in the period of

2001-2006. In the same period, Taiwan, South Korea and China all received the values

close to the global average. Despite the dip in 1996-2000, China remains the level

similar to Taiwan and South Korea. See Figure 27.

Psychiatry/Psychology

Fig. 28 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Psychiatry/Psychology,

1991-2010

The RCI of the six Asian nations in the field of psychiatry/psychology is as shown in

Figure 28. Until around 2000, both Taiwan and South Korea showed an increase in

their research impact in this field. Yet Taiwan failed to maintain its advantage and has

been seen the subsequent decrease of its RCI level. Meanwhile, South Korea has

remained at around the level of 0.8.

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan


China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan



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Social Sciences

Fig. 29 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Social Sciences,1991-2010

Asian countries have relatively low impact on the worlds research in social science.

Except Singapore, none of the six Asian nations reached the value of the global

average in this field over the investigated periods, as Figure 29 indicates. Even so,

Taiwan, China, and India presented significant growth rate over time. Both Taiwan and

China achieved near to 0.8 in the indicator in the most recent period.

Space Science

Fig. 30 Relative Citation Impact for the Six Asian Nations in Space Science, 1991-2010

Among the six Asian nations, Japan has the highest research impact in space science.

It has steadily rising RCI values since the period of 1996-2000 and remained above the

global average for the past ten years. South Korea and Taiwan are both in the top

three countries, with the values at 0.93 and 0.83, respectively, in the most recent

period. See Figure 30.

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan

Relativecitationimpac

t

China

India

Japan

Singapore

South Korea

Taiwan



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24

V Main Collaborating Countries and Institutions

Researchers in Taiwan tend to have frequent collaborations with colleagues from

high technology countries and neighboring countries. The most popular countries to

Taiwan are the U.S., Japan and China, followed by the U.K., Germany and Canada.

Over the last years, Taiwan has increased its connections with other Asian nations,

such as South Korea, China and India. The growing trend has been observed not only

in the number of co-authored papers between Taiwan and these Asian countries but

also in their share of Taiwans research outputs. See Table 6.

Table 6Main Collaborating Countries for Taiwan

1996-2000 2006-2010

Rank CountryNo. of Co-authored

Papers

% of Taiwans

Total OutputCountry

No. of Co-authored

Papers

% of Taiwans

Total Output

1 U.S.A. 5,395 11.34% U.S.A. 13,297 11.05%

2 Japan 827 1.74% China 4,524 3.76%

3 China 682 1.43% Japan 3,348 2.78%

4 Germany 481 1.01% U.K. 1,770 1.47%

5 Canada 441 0.93% Germany 1,681 1.40%

6 U.K. 391 0.82% Canada 1,517 1.26%

7 France 304 0.64% South Korea 1,495 1.24%

8 Italy 274 0.58% India 1,287 1.07%

9 South Korea 268 0.56% Australia 1,276 1.06%

10 Switzerland 241 0.51% France 1,259 1.05%

11 Russia 239 0.50% Russia 1,035 0.86%

12 Australia 232 0.49% Italy 839 0.70%

13 India 218 0.46% Switzerland 823 0.68%

14 Singapore 169 0.36% Singapore 737 0.61%

Table 7 shows the academic institutions with which Taiwan collaborates most

frequently between 1996 and 2000. Among them, U.S. universities including the

University of California at Los Angeles, the University of Illinois, Harvard University

and Johns Hopkins University are most popular collaborating institutions to Taiwan.


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They remained in the top 10 collaborating institutions for Taiwan over the

investigated periods of 1996-2000 and 2006-2010. Nevertheless, an increase of

collaborations can be seen between Taiwan and other Asian countries, such as China,

South Korea and Japan. It indicates the effects of shared cultural backgrounds and

similar interests of research focuses. The institution-level analysis indicates that the

Chinese Academy of Sciences, the University of Tokyo and Seoul National University

are the most popular Asian institutions for Taiwan in research collaboration.

Table 7

Taiwans Main Co-authoring Overseas Institutions for Academic Research Papers

1996-2000 2006-2010

Rank Organization Country

No. of

Co-authored

Papers

% of total

TaiwanOrganization Country

No. of

Co-authored

Papers

% of total

Taiwan

1 Univ Michigan USA 310 0.54% Chinese AcadSci China 729 0.61%

2 Purdue Univ USA 275 0.51%UnivCalif

Los AngelesUSA 643 0.53%

3 Univ Illinois USA 270 0.49% Univ Illinois USA 613 0.51%

4 MIT USA 255 0.48% Univ Tokyo Japan 597 0.50%

5UnivCalif

Los AngelesUSA 247 0.44% Harvard Univ USA 582 0.48%

6 Harvard Univ USA 242 0.43% Seoul NatlUniv Korea 565 0.47%

7Johns Hopkins

UnivUSA 229 0.41% Johns Hopkins Univ USA 539 0.45%

8 IstNazlFisNucl Italy 206 0.41% Univ Michigan USA 519 0.43%

9 Univ Bologna Italy 193 0.41% Ohio State Univ USA 509 0.42%

10 Univ Wisconsin USA 192 0.40% SungkyunkwanUniv Korea 494 0.41%

Source: Web of Science


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References

Glnzel, W. (2000), Science in Scandinavia: A Bibliometric Approach. Scientometrics,

48 (2), p. 121-150.

National Science Council, Executive Yuan (2011, 2012, 2013, 2014), White Paper on

Science and Technology (2011 to 2014 editions)

REIST-2 (1997), The European Report on Science and Technology Indicators 1997.

Second Edition, EUR 17639. European Commission, Brussels.


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