In 2018, there were ten thousand Vietnamese research papers published in international journals, 70% of which came from higher education institutions. Overall, Vietnamese publications in World of Science (WoS) and Scopus journals increased rapidly, by 34.7% nationally and 41.6% in higher education. We can now determine which Vietnamese universities published the most.
Ten thousand publications per year
Between 2014 and 2018, the total number of Vietnamese publications recorded by WoS, Scopus, and WoS + Scopus was 22,438, 29,932 and 32,732 respectively. The corresponding totals for higher education were 13,728, 21,702 and 23,144.
The Scopus amount is 1.33 times higher than WoS and the WoS + Scopus number is 1.46 times higher than WoS and 1.09 times higher than Scopus. Vietnamese publications recorded in WoS and Scopus from 2014 to 2018 compare with Scopus numbers from Indonesia in 21,300 in 2017, and 33,988 in 2018. From 2014 to 2017, the WoS & Scopus numbers increased by an average of 18.8% per year, but by 37.7% from 2017 to 2018.
By comparison, the number of Scopus publications by the National University of Singapore was slightly less, at 8,800 in 2018, with increases between 2017 and 2018 from 22.4% to 30.5% in WoS, and 18.1% to 33.7% in Scopus.
Similarly, the number of yearly publications in WoS & Scopus from Vietnamese institutions previously averaged 21.8%, but from 2017 to 2018 had increased to 41.6%. The increase in publications over these two years rose from 29.4% to 38.5% in WoS, and from 21.3% to 41.1% in Scopus.
These numbers show an acceleration of Scopus publications, with a strong increase in contributions from institutions in Vietnam, who are now more aware of the importance of publishing at a time which coincides with the granting of more autonomy by the government.
The thirty Vietnamese higher education institutions with the most publications
Results highlight the top thirty Vietnamese institutions with most publications from 2014 to 2018. In 2018, they show that the Vietnam National Universities (VNU), in Ho Chi Minh city and Hanoi, are still the two leaders, with Ton Duc Thang University (TDTU) in third position, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, (HUST) fourth and Duy Tan University (DTU) fifth. The first four have also been listed in the international QS, THE and AWRU rankings.
VNU in Ho Chi Minh city has published twice as many publications as HUST, ten times as many as the fifteenth and fifty times the thirtieth ranked on the Vietnamese list. Only fifteen institutions in Vietnam conduct significant research and these new statistics will be important in planning future development plans for higher education institutions in Vietnam.
Publications recorded in WoS & Scopus for the top thirty of Vietnamese institutions, from 2014 to 2018
International publications from 2014 to 2018 at VNU in Ho Chi Minh City and other traditional institutions did not increase as dramatically as those at TDTU and DTU and, in 2017, in WoS & Scopus, TDTU outstripped VNU Hanoi and, in 2018, overtook VNU in Ho Chi Minh City. In 2018, DTU publications matched those of HUST, although neither were previously listed the Vietnamese top ten. The recent contribution from TDTU changed the balance of publications strongly from north to south.
Comparison of increase in publications between institutions in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city
This trend is continuing in 2019. As of November 2019, TDTU and DTU published 2,300 and 980 publications in WoS & Scopus respectively, leading all other institutions. TDTU now leads the country, even ahead of the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology.
The average citation index of Vietnamese institutions is now 9.2, according to the VNU Hanoi QS ranking system. It can now be seen that Vietnam’s average citation index is near the Asian regional average.
Average citation index of the top thirty of Vietnamese institutions from 2014 to 2018
Vietnam now has seven institutions with a citation index above the national and Asian averages, namely Hanoi Medical University at 18.1, Hanoi University of Public Health at 16, DTU at 11.8, Hanoi University of Mining and Geology at 11.0, VNU Hanoi at 10.7, the National Economics University at 10.6, and TDTU at 10.3.
Excluding universities specializing in Health Sciences, the high average indices of the Hanoi University of Mining & Geology and the National Economics University stand out. The research at both these universities is highly current and related to issues on Vietnamese specifics of interest to scientists worldwide.
The Website of the WoS & Scopus integrated database VCGate is at: https://vcgate.vnu.edu.vn:3000
The information above came from WoS & Scopus research by VCGate at VNU in Hanoi on publications by Vietnamese authors. Nguyen Huu Thanh Chung, Vo Dinh Hieu and Ngo Manh Dung were members of the team that developed a software portal for accessing Vietnam’s research indices.
The system currently lists about seventy Vietnamese on-line journals containing fifty thousand publications, used to rank journal quality and ways of analyzing and assessing Vietnam’s publication capacity. VCGate also correlates citation indices internationally, like WoS and Scopus, highlighting the relationship between university autonomy and the increase in research capacity and quality.
(Media Center)