Catalonia, first in Spain in scientific impact

The scientific impact of research carried out in Catalonia is similar to that of Canada, Singapore or Finland, according to the Scopus 2003-2008 report on Bibliometric Indicators for Scientific Activity in Catalonia (Indicadors bibliomètrics de l’activitat científica de Catalunya), which places Catalonia first among the Spanish communities with regard to international visibility of research. UAB is the second university of the country in relation to production. The study was conducted by the SCImago Research Group and by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC).

18/11/2010

Catalonia contributes with 26.6 per cent of the total research production in Spain from the 2003 to 2008 period, with a total of 69,728 articles, and comes in second after the Community of Madrid, which leads the ranking in publication volume with 93,728 articles. Catalonia is leader however in the impact of its research, which is cited 30 per cent more than the average for Spain and 40 per cert more than the world average. The index of impact of publications is 1.4, compared to that of Madrid which is 1.19, while the average for Spain is 1.1.

It is internationally well positioned as well, at similar levels to those reached by Canada, Singapore, Finland, and very close to the averages for England, Sweden or Norway.

Mathematics, chemistry, immunology, environmental sciences, physics, computer sciences, materials science, medicine and agriculture are the areas of research with impacts reaching above the world's average. In contrast, the report highlights a low amount of scientific production in the field of engineering sciences when compared to the world's average.

The report also includes classifications for research centres, universities and health care institutes. The research centres ranking is topped by ICREA (Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies), IRTA (Institute for Food and Agricultural Research and Technology) and IFCO (Institute of Photonic Sciences ). The ranking for universities is headed by UB, UAB and UPC. With regard to hospitals, the top centres are Hospital Clínic, Hospital Universitari Vall d'Hebron and Hospital de la Santa Creu i Sant Pau.

Indicadors bibliomètrics de l’activitat científica de Catalunya (Scopus 2003-2008)