The study “Greek Scientific Publications 2002-2016: Bibliometric Analysis of Greek Publications in International Scientific Journals – Web of Science” is part of a series of studies undertaken by EKT with an aim of recording and analysing the Greek scientific activity in international peer-reviewed journals. The study relies on the Web of Science database, one of the largest worldwide abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature to record the performance of the Greek Publications and produces indicators which characterize the country’s research activity, describe progress and allow for further correlations with activity at EU and international level. The study records the country’s output in scientific publications for the 15-year period ranging from 2002 to 2016 on a national and per-institutional category level. In addition, it focuses on the latest 5-year period (2012-2016) in order to highlight recent trends and developments.

Bibliometric indicators provide significant information and contribute to a measurable and objective picture of the Research & Development systems. They are commonly used measures of research activity and performance in institutions, research centers, research groups or for individual researchers. Moreover, they provide information about research activity across scientific fields, point to the emergence of new subject areas and map research networks created for the achievement of common scientific goals.

Bibliometric indicators are a valuable tool and form part of a broader system of indicators for the evaluation of research activity. While bibliometric analyses have certain limitations (e.g. differences in publication practices and citations across scientific fields such as for example the differences observed between the fields of medicine and humanities), these limitations can be overcome by placing bibliometric indicators within the appropriate contextual framework, taking into account additional data and statistics as well as qualitative research outcomes.

The National Documentation Center (EKT) applied a robust methodological approach and validation techniques in bibliometrics. It also developed software tools which enabled the processing of data collected and the calculation of bibliometric indicators (data cleaning, processing and normalisation, distribution of publications across scientific fields and subfields, graphic representation).

The analysis follows the methodological framework (e.g. databases, range of indicators, method of calculations, range of institutions and scientific fields) of the previous studies published by EKT so as to ensure consistency of calculations and results.

The indicators present the number and share (%) of publications, percentage (%) of cited publications, number and share (%) of citations, citation impact, field normalised citation score, number and percentile breakdown of the highly cited publications.

The edition sets out findings regarding the total output and performance of Greek publications, the main institution categories in which scientific activity is distributed, scientific fields with the greatest share of publications, scientific collaborations, etc. Readers may find detailed information about data and figures throughout the chapters and read about the study’s methodological approach in the Appendices.