Singapore scientists most productive in Asia-Pacific

Nature, NPI 2011 Asia-Pacific

PRESS RELEASE FROM NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP

22 MARCH 2012

Singapore’s scientists are the most productive of the top-ranked Asia-Pacific countries, according to the Nature Publishing Index 2011 Asia-Pacific, released today. Singaporean scientists are top in terms of articles per capita and articles per research scientist, outperforming researchers in higher ranked countries Japan, China, Australia and Korea. The city-state’s high levels of investment in science and technology have resulted in Singapore ranking fifth in the region.

The top three institutions in Singapore: the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR); the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU); are all ranked in the top 50 in the Asia-Pacific for the 2009-2011 period — at 15th, 18th and 35th, respectively.

Another facet of Singapore’s success is the increase in the number of institutions contributing each year. Ten institutions published in Nature research journals in 2011, up from only three in 2009. This number is expected to continue to grow as the Singapore Government is already committed to expanding dramatically the amount of money spent on R&D in 2011–2015.

Singapore’s vibrant knowledge-based economy is characterized by high levels of collaboration between government agencies and private research institutes, including international companies such as GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis and Merck, and also between disciplines. This multidisciplinary collaboration has been actively encouraged in Singapore’s R&D strategy.

In a dynamic Asia-Pacific, Singapore faces a challenge from the larger Taiwan and India, both with a growing presence in research and development in the region.

The supplement provides a snapshot of research in the Asia-Pacific in 2011. To see the latest results for the region, 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-

Singapore 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.

About Nature Publishing Group (NPG):

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine.

NPG Nature Asia-Pacific is the Asia-Pacific wing of NPG, set up to serve the growing needs of the scientific and medical communities in the region, and has offices in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul, Delhi and Melbourne. For more information, please visit www.natureasia.com.
Focusing on the needs of scientists, Nature (founded in 1869) is the leading weekly, international scientific journal. In addition, for this audience, NPG publishes a range of Nature research journals and Nature Reviews journals, plus a range of prestigious academic journals including society-owned publications. Online, nature.com provides over 6 million visitors per month with access to NPG publications and online databases and services, including news and comment from Nature, NatureJobs plus access to Nature Network and Nature Education’s Scitable.com.

Scientific American is at the heart of NPG’s consumer media division, meeting the needs of the general public. Founded in 1845, Scientific American is the oldest continuously published magazine in the US and the leading authoritative publication for science in the general media. Together with scientificamerican.com and 14 local language editions around the world it reaches over 5 million consumers and scientists. Other titles include Scientific American Mind and Spektrum der Wissenschaft in Germany.

Throughout all its businesses NPG is dedicated to serving the scientific and medical communities and the wider scientifically interested general public. Part of Macmillan Publishers Limited, NPG is a global company with principal offices in London, New York and Tokyo, and offices in cities worldwide including Boston, Buenos Aires, Cairo, Delhi, Mumbai, Hong Kong, Madrid, Barcelona, Munich, Heidelberg, Basingstoke, Melbourne, Paris, San Francisco, Seoul and Washington DC. For more information, please go to www.nature.com.