The average number of citations per publication is used for assessing the scientific impact of publications, especially at a country level. This indicator – henceforth referred to as “citation impact”- is calculated as the ratio of the total number of citations to the total number of publications, without taking into account differences in citation practices among scientific fields.

Figure 2.3.1 presents the citation impact of Greek, EU and OECD publications. In the most recent 5-year period, 2010-2014, Greek publications received 6.13 citations on average, exceeding the EU (6.05) and OECD (6.01) average.

Notably, for the whole 2000-2014 period the rate of the citation impact of Greek publications has been consistently above the EU and OECD counterparts (Figure 2.3.2).

Figure 2.3.1

Figure 2.3.2

Rate of change: 1 + [(number of publications in year “n” – number of publications in year “n-1”)/ number of publications in year “n-1”]. The rate is 1, if the number of publications is the same across the years compared.

The “relative impact” indicator, as shown in Figure 2.3.3, compares citations -per-publication average for Greece against the EU and OECD. Greece’s citation impact relative to the EU and OECD has been exhibiting an ascending trend between 2000-2014. In the most recent 5-year period, 2010-2014, and for the first time ever Greece’s citation impact overtook that of the EU (1.01) and OECD (1.02). 

Figure 2.3.3

In terms of its relative citation impact (1.02) in the 5-year period 2010-2014, Greece was ranked 21st among the OECD-34 countries (Figure 2.3.4).

Figure 2.3.4

Data for Iceland and Luxembourg missing because of small number of publications (less than 1,000).