The Current Index, part of the Nature Index, has just announced the top ten Vietnamese research institutions, based on publications in the June 2018 to May 2019 timeframe.
The Current Index
The top ten Vietnamese research institutions
The top ten institutions are the three well-known universities: Vietnam National University (VNU) in Hanoi, the Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh city (VNU-HCM) and the Hanoi University of Science and Technology (HUST); then three others, the VNU University of Science, Duy Tan University (DTU), Ton Duc Thang University; and four research institutes and centers: the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST), the International Center for Interdisciplinary Science and Education (ICISE) in Quy Nhon, the Center for Innovative Materials and Architectures, and the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit of Vietnam.
Changes occurring over the past twelve months include DTU’s jump to fourth position, with VNU-HCM down to sixth and Ton Duc Thang University to seventh. DTU, ICISE, VNU-HCM and Ton Duc Thang are now ranked fourth to seventh respectively.
The assessment method used by the Nature Index is mostly based on two indices: the Article Count (AC), which is the number of papers an institution or country produces within the given time frame; and the Fractional Count (FC), which is the contribution ratio of the authors from the institution or country, considering the number of times the author is addressed on each paper. Out of these two indices, the FC is used to create the ranking.
The Nature Index selects 82 world-leading journals from tens of thousands of respected international publications to create the rankings. It currently reports an overall FC value of 14.08 for Vietnam in June this year, comprising 63% for Physics, 17% for Earth and Environmental Sciences, 15% for Chemistry and 5% for Life Sciences. The measurements are taken monthly but the index also has an Annual Table, summarizing changes over the fiscal year.
Country and regional ranking
The 2019 Annual Table 2019 reports that Vietnam entered the top 50 countries worldwide in the number and quality of publications for the first time, with an FC of 16.11, representing a 50.5% increase from 2018. This year, the US remains at the top of the list with an FC of 20,061.64, 2.9% lower than last year but 1.8 times higher than runner-up China and 4.5 times higher than Germany.
2019 Annual Table of Nature Index
In Southeast Asia, Singapore comes 17th, with an FC of 597.81, and Thailand 41st, with 38.65. Malaysia is noticeably absent from the list, despite a rapid increase in international publications and has normally surpassed Vietnam in other recent rankings. However, Malaysia had also been absent from the top 50 Annual Tables from 2016 to 2019 and its 2019 FC is only 9.52, even though the number of publications, the AC, is 136 compared to Vietnam’s 81. This data indicates that Malaysian academics contribute less as co-authors and collaborate less with other instiutions.
International collaboration and contribution to publications
International collaboration by Vietnam in its publications. Source: Nature Index
International collaboration on scientific papers is now essential worldwide. The graph above shows how Vietnam has been partnering with countries on all continents over the past academic year.
The report reveals that Vietnamese institutions partner mostly with European nations but taking the number of publications into account, they appear to work more closely with the US, Russia and Singapore.
Nature Research uses two factors to do this, the collaboration score and the contributor ratio. The collaboration score is proportional to the number of publications and the number of other countries mentioned in each individual publication. The contributor ratio measures the percentage a particular country contributed to the publications of its collaborations.
Comparing international collaboration and contribution ratio of different nations. Source: Nature Index
The US come first by collaboration score, and they contributed up to 60.8% to their publications. Singapore also has a remarkable contribution ratio at 47.9%. Vietnam’s contribution ratio stands at 28.6%, while Malaysia’s is 15.7%.
Experts believe that a contribution ratio of under 20% implies that a country is totally dependent on its foreign partners [1]. As a result, Malaysia may boast an impressive number of publications in recent years but still seems to show signs of foreign dependency when publishing internationally, indicating that Malaysia’s internal strength in scientific research is still too low.
(Reference: Khoa Bao, Research Informeta Group)
(Media Center)