Article

Achieving Global Success Through Quality Research

News Release issued by the COI News Distribution Service on 30 September 2009

STRICTLY EMBARGOED UNTIL: 00.01 hours, Friday 2 October 2009

UK research remains the most productive and efficient in the G8 – a report published today by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has found.

The UK also continues to rank as second only in the world to the USA on leading scientific indicators, the International Benchmarking Study of UK Research Performance 2009 published by Evidence Ltd and commissioned by BIS has revealed. These included clinical sciences, health sciences, biological sciences, environmental, and social sciences.

Crucially during the current economic climate, the study revealed that the UK offers some of the best value for money – the country ranks first among the G8 nations on the number of citations in relation to public R&D spend.

The Minister for Science and Innovation, Lord Drayson, welcomed the report, which he said reflected the UK’s unwavering focus on quality rather than quantity.

Lord Drayson said,

"Once again, we have outperformed other nations in the G8 and secured our position as second in the world in scientific productivity.

“Supporting the science community and maintaining our excellent research base is critical to the UK’s future economic growth and prosperity. This is why the government will invest a record level of almost £6 billion in UK science and research by 2011."

The study also revealed a rise in the number of UK papers co-authored with researchers in other countries. These co-authored papers tend to be highly cited – international collaborations with the USA, Germany and France have an impact 50 percent higher than the UK research base average.

The Government and others use the annual benchmark provided by the study to assess the UK’s performance alongside the 25 world leading research economies – including the G8 nations, India and China.

Other key findings from the analysis of papers and citations in 8000 of the world’s leading scientific journals reveal that the UK:

· share of citations in science journals across the world is 12 percent, second only to the USA.

· increased its share of the most cited (or top 1%) of world papers from 13.4 percent last year to 14.4 percent.

· received a “citation impact” – the average citation rate of a paper – which placed the UK second in the G8, ahead of the USA but behind Germany.

· produced 8 percent of the world’s scientific papers, third only to the USA and China

The report also highlights a four-fold increase in the quantity of papers produced by China over the last decade – overtaking the UK. Although its citation count – which indicates the quality of the papers – has climbed to above 5 percent, the country remains significantly behind the established research economies including the UK. It is ranked sixth overall, ahead of Canada and Italy.

The excellence of our researchers is further highlighted in the 2009 competition for European Research Council starting grants where UK institutions had the highest success rates with over 40 of the 237 successful proposals. The next best rate was France with 31.

These starting grants target promising research leaders of the future, providing support as they establish or consolidate their teams and begin conducting independent research in Europe.

Notes to Editors

1. For media enquiries contact the BIS Press Office – Rachel Clarke 18002 0207 215 5945 (this is a text-direct telephone; please dial the number in full). Email: Rachel.clarke@bis.gsi.gov.uk

2. Q&A

Who commissions this report and why?

The Department for Business, Innovations and Skills (BIS) commissions an annual international benchmarking study to compare UK performance against 25 comparator countries including the G8, China, India and other leading scientific nations, across forty separate scientific indicators. This is the sixth annual report

These reports are used to measure six key performance indicators within the BIS public service agreement and 10 year Science and Innovation framework targets. These are:

Share of all world citationsShare of world citations in each of the nine broad science disciplines Total Researchers per 1000 workforceCitations per £1 of publicly performed R&DCitations relative to GDPCitations per researcher

Who is this report aimed at? / who will use this report?

The key target audience includes the academic community, science policy officials and government departments. The UK Research Councils also use the outputs to inform their Annual Performance Reports.

What are the findings of this report used to inform?

Trained people, papers in scientific journals and the citations they receive are three of the most widely recognised and accepted indicators of scientific output. The best we have available. Case studies and other surveys do not have the same international comparability or widespread acceptance. Indicators also measure the degree of UK international collaboration in co-authorship of papers and resulting citations are used by the International Science and Innovation Unit.

Who produces it?

The report is contracted out by BIS (formerly DIUS) to Evidence Ltd, a Thomson Reuters business, of Leeds.

Where does the data come from?

The benchmarking study uses data from Thomson Healthcare & Science. Thomson Healthcare & Science indexes over 8,000 leading scientific journals in 35 languages. Although there can be no absolutes this is widely recognised as covering the vast majority of material likely to have significant value to others in most scientific fields. It is accepted, however, that the Arts and Humanities are less well covered.

What are citations?

Citations are the formal references made by fellow scientists to earlier works.

What is citation impact?

Citation impact is the average citation rate of a paper, reflecting acknowledgement by later authors (usually fellow scientists) of its value.

Department for Business, Innovation & Skills

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is building a dynamic and competitive UK economy by: creating the conditions for business success; promoting innovation, enterprise and science; and giving everyone the skills and opportunities to succeed. To achieve this it will foster world-class universities and promote an open global economy. BIS - Investing in our future.

Contacts:

BIS Press Office
NDS.BIS@coi.gsi.gov.uk

Rachel Clarke
Phone: 18220 020 7215 5945 - text direct phone
Mobile: This is a text direct phone- please dial in fill
Rachel.Clarke@bis.gsi.gov.uk