An International Bibliometric Comparison of Research Conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences

The study compares the scientific performance of basic research conducted by the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) with that of comparable networks of non-university research organisations in Germany and France. The analysis compares research fields in terms of their staff size, publication output, and publication productivity in top scientific journals. The comparison is based on an accompanying publicly available interactive online application.

The whole study is available in Czech here.

Summary  This study presents key bibliometric comparisons of staff size, publication output, and publication productivity of the institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) as a whole. We compare CAS with similar networks of non-university research institutions in Germany—the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft Deutscher Forschungszentren, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung, Leibniz-Gemeinschaft, Max-Planck-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Wissenschaften (HFLP)—and with the French network Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). The comparisons in this work are based on a publicly available interactive online application, which provides much more detailed information. The staff size of the CAS is similar to that of HFLP and CNRS, not only in absolute terms (the number of researchers relative to the populations of the countries), but also in terms of their share of their entire domestic research sectors, after we take multiple affiliations of authors into account. Compared to researchers at CNRS and HFLP, when we account for joint affiliations with universities, researchers at the CAS are similarly productive in top journals: they are slightly more productive than CNRS researchers, and somewhat less productive than HFLP researchers, but demonstrate significantly greater disciplinary heterogeneity. The disciplines at CAS that are relatively large in terms of personnel tend to be less productive in terms of publications. In comparison with the domestic research sectors (predominantly that of domestic universities), the CAS institutes are similarly over-productive in top journals, as are HFLP and CNRS institutes in relation to their domestic universities. After we adjust for overlapping affiliations, CAS institutes are relatively more productive than CNRS and HFLP in this respect.

Daniel Münich on Loosening Fiscal Rules

In an interview with Radio Prague International, IDEA’s Daniel Münich discusses the government’s plan to loosen fiscal rules and the risks it poses to Czech public finances (July 31, 2026)

Full Interview

Radio Prague International: One thing you are against is the possibility of increasing expenditure by 10 percent on the basis of a decision by the State Security Council. But in these uncertain times, wouldn’t an extraordinary security situation justify the change the government is pushing for?

“The Security Council is nothing other than part of the government, so in other words this would just be cutting out Parliament. And it can’t be that way. The government should always go to the lower house and ask for changes in the original budget, which can be done very quickly. So this is just a way of getting rid of Parliament.

The minister of finance, Alena Schillerová, says the government have no alternative to loosening these rules, which she calls a severe constraint on the Czech economy.

“Of course that’s not true. There is a very clear, very simple alternative. And that is to increase taxation on incomes. In 2021 there was a huge decrease that was originally planned to be temporary, but it has remained there until now. The tax cut at that time in current prices was CZK 130 billion, which is quite a lot of money, and more than the government needs now to finance all its promises and obligations.” 

Some people may say that if this bill is passed and if the government then acts in an irresponsible manner, voters can punish the government – they can vote the government out or not vote for those parties again.

“This government will be there until 2029, but fiscal problems, the payment of debt, will show up later on. So the only case in which this government would be held to account by the public would be if some kind of external crisis occurred that would require much higher spending, which would impose an additional burden on the public finances.”

In any case, the government are planning to override the president’s veto. The opposition say they will take the matter to the Constitutional Court. How do you think this will end?

 

Cognitive Abilities are Not Enough: Social and Emotional Competencies of Czech Students

The policy brief draws attention to a fundamental yet often overlooked aspect of education: the social and emotional skills of young people. According to the latest international PISA assessment, Czech students performed poorly in these skills. What lies behind the low level of social and emotional skills among Czech 15-year-olds, and what consequences could this have for their future educational achievement and success later in life? Read more …