Korea demonstrates scientific creativity

Nature, NPI 2011 Asia-Pacific

PRESS RELEASE FROM NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

22 MARCH 2012

Korean science and technology has proved its creativity and breadth. The nation ranks fourth in the Nature Publishing Index 2011 Asia-Pacific, which is released today as a supplement to Nature. Comparing 2010 and 2011, Korean scientists have increased both their publication count and their average contribution as co-authors in Nature research journals, indicating a growing strength in Korean scientific institutions.

Korea is the fourth-ranked producer of research in the region, behind Japan, China and Australia, and ahead of Singapore, Taiwan and India. Korea’s publication rate in the Nature research journals is growing strongly, and in the past year Korea extended its lead over fifth-placed Singapore.

Korea’s scientific research output, traditionally strong in the physical sciences, also performed well in life sciences in 2011, particularly in genetics and neuroscience. Seoul National University dominates, ranking sixth in the Asia-Pacific. It features 52nd in the Nature Publishing Index 2011 Global Top 100 (beta) rankings, also released today.

The Nature Publishing Index 2011 Asia-Pacific measures the output of research articles from nations and institutions in terms of publications in 2011 in the prestigious Nature research journals. It provides a unique insight into the quality and impact of Korean and Asia-Pacific science.

The supplement provides a snapshot of research in the Asia-Pacific in 2011. To see the latest results for the region, and the Nature Publishing Index Global Top 100, visit the Index website at www.natureasia.com/en/publishing-index/. The data posted on the website is updated every week with a moving window of 12 months of data.

-ENDS-

Korea contact:

Contact: Niall Byrne
Science in Public, Australia
T: +61 417 131 977
niall@scienceinpublic.com.au

Nature Publishing Group press contacts:

Contact: Grace Baynes
Corporate Public Relations, Nature Publishing Group
T:+44 20 7014 4063
g.baynes@nature.com

Contact: Ruth Francis
Head of Press, Nature Publishing Group
T:+44 20 7843 4562
r.francis@nature.com

Notes on the Nature Publishing Index:

The Index results should be used with some caveats. The Index only covers Nature and the 17 Nature research journals, so while it offers broad coverage of basic research in the life sciences, physical and chemical sciences, coverage of applied sciences, engineering and clinical medicine is relatively limited, and so the index should be used primarily as an indicator of strength in high quality basic research. It does not incorporate publication in other high quality journals. The Index also only considers one factor — publication output in one family of journals. It does not weight multiple factors in the way that other rankings do, such as the Shanghai Academic Ranking of World Universities or the Times Higher Education World University Rankings.

The output of an institution or country obviously depends on its size. Finally, some institutions have very large numbers of researchers that help drive up their rankings. So it is important to take into account the numbers of researchers in an institution or country when interpreting the results.

The Nature Publishing Index Global 100 (beta) (www.natureasia.com/en/publishing-index/global/) ranks the top 100 institutions in the world according to the numbers of papers published in Nature research journals in 2011, and is derived from a beta website covering over 2500 institutions worldwide that published in Nature research journals in 2011. The Nature Publishing Index Global Top 50 (beta) is produced in collaboration with Digital Science, a division of Macmillan Publisher Ltd

About Nature Publishing Group (NPG):

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