Overall indicators

In 2016, 10.989 Greek scientific publications are recorded in the Web of Science database. This marks an increase in relation to the 2014-2015 period, yet it remains slightly below the all-time high score recorded in 2012 (11.203). Since 2009 and for the last 8 years, yearly oscillations are in the range of few hundreds publications, something indicating that the high point of Greek publications is slightly above the 11.000 mark. 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 at the top of 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. For 2016, Greek publications received 392.230 citations, an all-time high. Moreover, the latter increase 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, for 2016 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 2002-2016 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 1,9%, 7,0%, 12,6%, 27,6% and 50,2%. 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. 24.5% 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 36.8%, whereas in top 10% it is 42.9%.

Most important contributor

For the 2012-2016 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 "Private Health Institutions", "Other Public Research Institutions", and "Public Hospitals". Citation higher than the world average is scored by “Research Centers supervised by GSRT”, "Private Health Institutions", "Private Non For Profit Organizations", "Other Public Research Institutions", “Universities” and ''Public Hospitals''. In relation to the six main scientific fields, in “Natural Sciences” the highest impact is scored by "Private Health Institutions", in “Engineering & Technology'' the "Other Education Institutions", in “Medical & Health Sciences”, “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) are located in 38 specialized scientific fields of “Natural Sciences”, 34 in “Medical & Health Sciences”,  25 in “Engineering & Τechnology”, 11 in “Social Sciences”, 4 in “Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences” and 2 in “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.