Overall indicators

In 2014, 10.793 Greek scientific publications are recorded. This number is slightly less than the all-time high score recorded in 2012 (11.178). In recent years, the rate of increase in Greece is slightly less than the EU and OECD countries. However, if the number of publications is viewed in relation to the national R&D spending, Greece tops the relevant EU rankings indicating the high 'productivity' of the domestic research system in terms of scientific publications/

Number of citations

In relation to impact, innovativeness, quality and visibility, Greek scientific publications are dynamically placed within the international environment, since citation of Greek publications continue to increase in accordance to prior years' trend. For 2014, Greek publications received 334.992 citations. Moreover, the latter increase in higher rates than the EU and OECD countries. In parallel, the country' contribution in the number of EU and OECD citations continues to increase. The same holds in relation to the citation' percentages. As a matter of fact, the share of Greek scientific publications that receive a citation, an indicator linked to the innovativeness and the quality of the research and the visibility of the respective authors, surpasses the EU and OECD average for the 2010-2014 period by 1.5 per cent.

Impact factor

Similarly, the impact factor of the Greek scientific publications continues to rise at a rate higher than the EU and OECD countries. It is for the first time, that the rate has surpassed the EU and OECD average. Also, the relative citation impact - indicating the distance between the average citation received by Greek publications to the EU and OECD average - not only continues to rise for the entirety of the 2000-2014 period, but has incrementally surpassed the EU and OECD.

In relation to bibliometric indicators recording the highly cited publications (a number or percentage of publications that were ranked among the top 1%, 5%, 10%, 25% and 50% of the most cited publications worldwide per year and per thematic area), the respective ranking of Greek publications is 1.6%, 6.4%, 11.7%, 26.7 and 49.7%. The above indicate that in four out of five cases (except 50%) the most cited production of the domestic science base exceeds the world average, something very important.

Equally, the participation/first authoring of Greek scientists is significant. 28.5% of the most cited publications belonging in the top 1% scale have been first authored by author employed by a Greek institution. In the top 5% scale, the rate is 42.0%, whereas in top 10% it is 62.5%.

Most important contributor

For the 2010-2014 period, the three most important institution categories in relation to the number of publications are the “Universities”, “Research Centers supervised by GSRT” and “Public Health Institutions”. In relation to cited publications,  “Research Centers supervised by GSRT” top the rank, followed by "Private Health Institutions", "Other Public Research Institutions", and "Private Non For Profit Organizations".

Citation higher than the world average is scored by "Private Health Institutions", “Research Centers supervised by GSRT”, "Private Non For Profit Organizations",  "Other Public Research Institutions" and  “Universities”.

In relation to the six main scientific fields, in “Natural Sciences” the highest impact is scored by "Private Health Institutions", in “Engineering & Technology'' the "Other Education Institutions", in “Medical & Health Sciences” the "Private Health Institutions", in “Agricultural Sciences” the “Research Centers supervised by GSRT”, in “Social Sciences” the "Private Non For Profit Organizations", and in “Humanities” the “Research Centers supervised by GSRT”.

Scientific fields of excellence

In relation to the 2008-2012 period and with the exception of “Engineering and Technology”, the relative citation impact of Greek scientific publications in all other scientific fields tend to increase (or, remain the same), while publications that score a higher impact than the global average (i.e. scoring higher than 1) are located in 29 specialized scientific fields of “Medical & Health Sciences”,  26 in “Natural Sciences”, 17 in “Engineering & Τechnology”, 9 in “Social Sciences”, 5 in “Agricultural Sciences” and 4 in “Humanities”.

Collaborations

In relation to scientific collaborations for the production of Greek scientific publications, for the 2000-2014 period a continuous drops of publications produced by a sole institution is recorded, while a continuous rise is recorded in relation collaborating with the international scientific community. The highest score of collaborations is recorded with the USA, UK, Germany, France and Italy. In all the scientific fields, the relative impact factor is significantly higher in those publications that have been produced as a result of international collaboration.