Universities in Australia are ranked amongst the world's top 50 most frequently cited research institutions over a period of five years from January 2003 to December 2007. This is according to data derived from the Essential Science Indicators (ESI) database of the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters. Australian universities ranked among the world's top 50, appearing in four of 22 categories, namely Geosciences, Environment/Ecology, Psychiatry/Psychology and Social Sciences. Environment/Ecology and Social Sciences are two fields in which more than one Australian university is represented within the top 50.
The ranking derived from ESI shows a marked improvement over the data for the earlier time period of 1998-2002 when only two Australian universities were ranked in the world's top 50. Ranking of the universities is based on the total number of citations of their published research papers from January 2003 to December 2007 in high-standard international scholarly journals, and is considered as evidence of their academic excellence. This objective approach differs from that used in other university rankings, most of which are consolidated based on multiple aspects of university research and education using both subjective and objective criteria.
Essential Science Indicators is a resource that enables researchers to conduct ongoing, quantitative analyses of research performance and track trends in science. Covering a multidisciplinary selection of over 11,000 journals from around the world, this analytical tool offers data for ranking scientists, institutions, countries, and journals. This comprehensive compilation of science performance statistics and science trends data is based on journal article publication counts and citation data from Scientific databases. Available as a 10-year rolling file, ESI covers 10 million articles in 22 specific fields of research, and is updated every two months.
