The Healthcare and Science business of Thomson Reuters, US, has announced the annual Top 20 ranking of Japanese research institutions for all fields based on citation data of academic papers published from January 1998 to December 2008.
Among world research institution rankings, only the Japanese institutions were extracted and re-tabulated in order to identify the top 20 Japanese research institutions. Using the 22 categories defined in Essential Science Indicators, four categories - Material Science, Physics, Chemistry and Biology/Biochemistry - were identified where Japanese institutions were ranked within the top 5 and top 10 in the world.
It was observed that the overall number of both research papers and citations has been gradually increasing in the past few years, and that research output from Japan's top research institutions has been growing more active. No.1 and No.2 national rankings in all four general categories are the same as last year. In addition, there is no change in the overall ranking up to the 13th place. According to ranking by category, there is no significant change to research institutions closer to the top of the Japanese rankings.
The government-affiliated research institutions such as Japan Science and Technology Agency (Independent Administrative Institution), Institute of Physical and Chemical Research (Independent Administrative Institution), National Institute of Industrial Science and Technology (Independent Administrative Institution) remain strong in the rankings. In terms of world ranking, the University of Tokyo has been gradually moving up since its No.19 ranking in 2002. It was ranked No.11 this year, one position up from No. 12 in 2008. Tohoku University was placed No.83 in 2002 and ranked much higher up at No. 64 this year.
