Singapore's research output is currently growing exponentially, according to data collated by publisher Wiley-Blackwell and presented by Bibliometrics Director Iain Craig at a recent research seminar held by the company. Wiley-Blackwell analysed Singapore's scientific productivity using bibliometric data provided by Thomson Scientific. Bibliometrics is the comparative analysis of quantity and quality of scientific output - measured using the aggregates of indexed titles at a country and subject level.
Economic indicators collected by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation (OECD) - such as the GDP, the percentage of GDP spent on R&D and the number of researchers - were co-examined with the bibliometric indicators. The analysis provided a set of perspectives on the effect of Singapore's scientific funding in terms of scientific output. Also, the data showed that Singapore's scientific productivity proportion, as a proportion of the world's output, continued to rise at a rate that far exceeded the overall world growth rate. In fact, Singapore's output increased by some 72 percent from 2000 to 2007.
The bibliometric analysis also showed that Singapore, with an R&D expenditure of about $3.1 billion in 2006, generated publications at a rate of 0.3 publications per researcher. This ratio is higher than that of both China and Japan - who had spent significantly more money on R&D in the same time period. The number of publications by Singapore researchers in high impact journals had also increased year on year - indicating that publishing activity in Singapore continues to take on a more external and outward-looking focus.
International collaboration is increasing in intensity and Singaporean researchers are now publishing high quality research material with more countries. The international research status of Singapore is rising - hence presenting more opportunity for further improvements to be made in publication quality through global partnerships, according to the Wiley-Blackwell research data.
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