Scientific publication performance in post-communist countries: still lagging far behind

Stepan Jurajda, Stanislav Kozubek, Daniel Münich and Samuel Škoda
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Stanislav Kozubek: Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Scientometrics, 2017, vol. 112, issue 1, No 16, 315-328

Abstract: Abstract We present a bibliometric comparison of publication performance in 226 scientific disciplines in the Web of Science (WoS) for six post-communist EU member states relative to six EU-15 countries of a comparable size. We compare not only overall country-level publication counts, but also high quality publication output where publication quality is inferred from the journal Article Influence Scores. As of 2010–2014, post-communist countries are still lagging far behind their EU counterparts, with the exception of a few scientific disciplines mainly in Slovenia. Moreover, research in post-communist countries tends to focus relatively more on quantity rather than quality. The relative publication performance of post-communist countries in the WoS is strongest in natural sciences and engineering. Future research is needed to reveal the underlying causes of these performance differences, which may include funding and productivity gaps, the historical legacy of the communist ideology, and Web of Science coverage differences.

Keywords: Bibliometrics; National comparison; Scientometric indicators; Article Influence Score; Web of Science; Post-communist Europe; 91F99 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I23 I29 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2017
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2389-8

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