Counts of citations to scientific publications are among the most common indicators in bibliometrics and constitute quantifiable evidence of the significance and influence of research. Figure 2.2.1 tracks citations received by Greek publications between 2000 and 2014. According to standard bibliometric practices, data is presented in five-year windows, from 2000 through 2014. Each five-year window displays the number of citations to those publications produced within the designated time.

In the last 5-year window, 2010-2014, Greek publications received 334,992 citations. The number is an all-time high, scoring a 6% increase relative to the 2009-2013 period.   

Figure 2.2.1

Throughout this 2000-2014 period, global trends demonstrate a significant increase in the overall citations counts, both in the EU and the OECD countries. The growth rate of the number of citations to Greek publications has been consistently surpassing the EU and OECD baseline, even though with a smaller margin in during later 5-year windows (Figure 2.2.2). 

Figure 2.2.2

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.

Accordingly, Greece’s share of EU and OECD citations increased (Figure 2.2.3): for the 2010-2014 period this was equal to 2.28% and 1.15%, respectively.  

Figure 2.2.3

An additional indicator of the visibility and impact of research, is the number of cited publications and its percentage (%) in the total publications output. The percentage (%) of Greek cited publications presents a steady upward trend between 2000-2014, reaching up to 71.1% in 2014. This is well above the EU (69.7%) and the OECD (69.5%) performance (Figure 2.2.4).

Figure 2.2.4