This report presents a bibliometric analysis of New Zealand’s peer-reviewed research publication 2002-2007. It identifies areas of focus and strength within New Zealand’s research community, shows patterns of linkage and collaboration, and compares New Zealand’s science performance with the rest of the OECD.
The analysis presented in this report is based on a Scopus customised dataset of OECD publications 2002-2007. Some analysis reported excludes 2007 (only reports 2002-2006) due to data or citation availability.
Methodology
The analysis presented in this report is based on a customised dataset extracted from the Scopus database by Elsevier. This dataset consists of all content in the Scopus database for 2002-2007, with at least one author with at least one address in the OECD, and all citations attracted by these records, as of June 2008.
Before analysis was conducted, the dataset was partially cleaned, with all New Zealand addressed publications subjected to de-duplication at the institutional level, during which each institution was assigned to a relevant industry sector.
Publications with authors from different sectors or countries are affiliated with both sectors and countries. For example, a paper with two authors - one from New Zealand, and one from Australia - would be counted as both a New Zealand publication and an Australian publication. This means, for example, that the sum of New Zealand publications by sector is greater than the total number of New Zealand publications, and that the sum of publications by country is greater than the total number of world publications.
For this study, the discipline and subject area classifications used are Elsevier's. Publications are classified based on which journal they appear in.
The dataset also has several known practical limitations and constraints:
- Incomplete attribution of author affiliation. An estimated 20% of items have no author affiliation.
- Certain disciplines are under-represented. Scopus has limited coverage of the social sciences, and very limited coverage of the humanities.
- Journals in languages other than English are under-represented in the data. Of particular relevance to New Zealand, there is no coverage of journals in Te Reo Māori.
- Consortia, such as Centres of Research Excellence, are under-represented in the data, as authors tend to use their primary institutional affiliation.
- Articles published in multidisciplinary journals are classified as multidisciplinary.
Key Results
Major findings are that:
- The rate and impact of New Zealand publications has increased during the period 2002-2007. This is especially so in the Tertiary Education sector, which appears to be associated with changes to Tertiary Sector research funding.
- While the impact of New Zealand publications is generally average for an OECD nation, there are certain disciplines (especially in the medical sciences) where New Zealand research has a higher than average impact. This is the same as in previous bibliometric findings.
- New Zealand is a cost effective place to do research. It has a comparatively high rate of publication per dollar of R&D expenditure.