Page 3 - IDEA Study 2016 01 Publication Output

Study 1 /2016

An International Comparison of the Quality of Academic
Publication Output in the Czech Republic1

ŠTĚPÁN JURAJDA2), STANISLAV KOZUBEK3), DANIEL MÜNICH2), SAMUEL ŠKODA2)23

Summary

In our recent study (IDEA No. 5/20154) we have compared the publication output
of various Czech research institutions by individual disciplines. The comparison was based
on the relative output of institutions working in specific science branches within the Czech
Republic, and had no way of indicating which institutions in the Czech Republic were on
par with international research and which were lagging behind. Even though an institution
is not at the top in its field within the Czech Republic, the quality of its research may still
be on par with international research, as the particular branch of science is highly
advanced in the Czech Republic. Therefore, this study is a first step toward comparing the
research output of Czech institutions on an international level. We have compared the
publication output of entire scientific fields in the Czech Republic to the same fields in
other countries, basing our comparison on articles published in the years 2010–2014 and
included in the Web of Science (WoS) database. The comparison includes eleven small and
medium-sized countries, only one of which has English as its official language: five
European countries belonging to the so-called former Soviet bloc, four Western European
countries, and two non-European countries.

Unlike most similar international bibliometric comparisons, our study indicates both the
overall quantity of scientific publications included in the WoS and its quality distribution.
This has allowed us to compare the general status of Czech scientific fields, both as to their
publication output and quality. We have also attempted to describe the dynamic
development of the international status of Czech scientific fields over time.

1 This study has been completed with the support of the Czech Academy of Sciences, as part of its Strategy
AV21. The authors wish to thank Ing. J. Kovařík for his help in obtaining information from the WoS.
2 Think-tank IDEA associated with the CERGE-EI, a joint academic institution of the Economics Institute of
the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Center for Economic Research and Graduate Studies of Charles
University.
3 Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

4 http://idea.cerge-ei.cz/files/IDEA_Studie_5_2015_Publikacni_vykonnost/IDEA_Studie_5_2015_Publikacni_vykonnost.html

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