Overall indicators

In 2018, 11,606 Greek scientific publications are recorded in the Web of Science database. This marks an increase in relation to previous years. This indicates rather high production of Greek publications, while the rate of publication increase in Greece is at par with the EU and OECD countries. If the number of publications is viewed in relation to the national R&D spending, Greece remains rather high at 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. Between 2014-2018, Greek publications received 454,084 citations, an all-time high. Moreover, the latter increases 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. 

Impact factor

Similarly, between 2014-20018 the impact factor of the Greek scientific publications continues to increase in accordance to prior years' trend having overcome the EU and OECD average. In addition, the rate of this rise is higher than the EU and OECD countries. 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 2004-2018 period, but since 2010 has overcome the EU and OECD average. 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 2.2%, 7.8%, 13.6%, 29.2% and 52.2%. It is for the first time that in all five cases, the most cited production of the domestic science base exceeds the world average, indicating a high caliber aspect of the domestic science system. Equally, the participation/first authoring of Greek scientists is significant. 22.9% 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 33.1%, whereas in top 10% it is 39.1%.

Most important contributor

For the 2014-2018 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 "Other Public Research Institutions", and "Universities". Citation higher than the world average is scored by "Private Non For Profit Organizations",  "Other Education Institutions" and “Research Centers supervised by GSRT”. In relation to the six main scientific fields, in “Natural Sciences” the highest impact is scored by "Other Education Institutions", in “Engineering & Technology'' and “Medical & Health Sciences” the "Private Non For Profit Organizations", and in “Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences”, “Social Sciences” and “Humanities and the Arts” the “Research Centers supervised by GSRT”.

Scientific fields of excellence

Publications that score a higher impact than the global average (i.e. scoring higher than 1) most are located in fields of “Natural Sciences”, and “Engineering & Τechnology”. Between 2014-2018, “field-normalised citation score” above the world average (value greater than 1) is achieved in all six major fields of science (“Natural Sciences”, “Engineering & Τechnology”, “Medical & Health Sciences”, “Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences”, “Social Sciences” and “Humanities and the Arts”) .

Collaborations

In relation to scientific collaborations for the production of Greek scientific publications, publications that are a result of international collaboration continue to increase. 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.