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TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 28 /PRNewswire/ —

- In Five of 22 Categories at Least One Taiwan Institution Ranks Within
the World’s Top 100 for 2003-2007 Period

Universities in Taiwan are ranked amongst the top one percent of research
institutions from around the world over a period of five years from January
2003 to December 2007. According to data derived from the (1)Essential
Science Indicators (SM) (ESI) database of the Scientific business of Thomson
Reuters, at least one Taiwan institution is ranked among the world’s top 100
in five of 22 categories, namely Agricultural Science, Chemistry,
Engineering, Materials Science, and Pharmacology & Toxicology. Engineering
and Materials Science were two fields in which more than one Taiwan
university was represented within the top 100.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080424/NYTH069LOGO )

Essential Science Indicators is a bi-monthly compilation of the (2)Web of
Science(R), the world’s most authoritative citation database used at more
than 3,500 research institutions around the world and in more than 40
countries. Derived from ISI Web of Science and monitored in Essential Science
Indicators, this ranking of Taiwan universities allows for variations and
changes of university names to be managed in a consistent manner. The ranking
is based on each institution’s research output in high-standard international
scholarly journals and is considered as evidence of their academic
excellence. This approach differs from that used in other university
rankings, most of which are consolidated based on multiple aspects of
university research and education using both objective and subjective
criteria.

The ranking derived from ESI below shows up to five Taiwan universities
that appeared in each of the five categories along with their world standing.
Ranking of the universities is based on the total number of citations of
their published research papers from January 2003 to December 2007.

Average
cites
Taiwan World per
rank rank Institution Cities Papers paper

Agricultural Science
1 82 National Taiwan University 774 260 2.98
2 104 National Chungsing University 652 256 2.55
3 299 National Taiwan Ocean University 200 95 2.11

Chemistry
1 85 National Taiwan University 8377 1905 4.4
2 143 National Tsing Hua University 6071 1279 4.75
3 269 National Cheng Kung University 3928 1035 3.8
4 327 National Chiao Tung University 3155 733 4.3
5 365 National Sun Yat-sen University 2811 720 3.9

Engineering
1 51 National Taiwan University 3089 1718 1.8
2 52 National Cheng Kung University 3085 1832 1.68
3 69 National Chiao Tung University 2775 1673 61.6
4 146 National Tsing Hua University 1627 1013 1.61
5 235 National Central University 1112 650 1.71

Materials Science
1 37 National Tsing Hua University 3347 883 3.79
2 52 National Taiwan University 2740 819 3.35
3 53 National Cheng Kung University 2726 1154 2.36
4 98 National Chiao Tung University 1835 496 3.7
5 221 National Central University 991 282 3.51

Pharmacology & Toxicology
1 61 National Taiwan University 1638 334 4.9
2 135 Taipei Medical University 1122 226 4.96
3 237 National Yang Ming University 711 164 4.34

In summary with the collating of all 22 categories, the top 10 Taiwan
universities appear as follows:

All Fields
Average
cites
Taiwan World per
rank rank Institution Cities Papers paper
1 171 National Taiwan University 53,185 14,623 3.64
2 372 National Cheng Kung University 24,162 8,463 2.86
3 467 National Tsing Hua University 18,514 5,649 3.28
4 507 National Yang Ming University 16,459 3,680 4.47
5 584 National Chiao Tung University 14,057 5,929 2.37
6 737 National Central University 10,251 3,488 2.94
7 766 National Sun Yat-sen University 9,651 3,721 2.59
8 808 Chang Gung University 8,926 2,847 3.14
9 881 National Chungsing University 7,760 3,177 2.44
10 890 Kaohsiung Medical University 7,617 2,257 3.37

“The ranking result derived from ESI reflects the citation impact of
Taiwan universities which has been growing significantly these past five
years,” said Mr. Mark Garlinghouse, Vice President, Asia Pacific for the
Scientific business of Thomson Reuters. “Methodological consistency is
important to maintain statistical validity, especially for research
evaluation. Since 2001, Scientific has been applying consistent methodology
in ESI and continuously improving its quality. As the leading global provider
of authoritative information to research communities, we are committed to
ensuring the integrity of our information in research evaluation and
supporting the local research community with value-added resources such as
informed and balanced analysis to help them evaluate their academic
positioning.”
Ms. Nobuko Miyairi, Senior Information Analyst for the Scientific
business of Thomson Reuters, commented, “When interpreting these university
rankings, it is important to consider the size of the universities as well as
the research focus in their academic pursuit. Universities with a large
number of researchers, such as National Taiwan University and National Cheng
Kung University, tend to dominate these rankings if ranking is based on the
number of papers published or citations received as a total. National Chiao
Tung University, National Tsing Hua University and National Central
University compete with these two biggest institutions in physical science
and applied sciences.”
She added, “A strong focus in certain disciplines will give some
universities an advantage in specific fields such as Pharmacology &
Toxicology in the case of Taipei Medical University and National Yang Ming
University. University administrators and evaluators are encouraged to
consider not only domestic rankings but also the world ranking of their
institutions, and the time-series change in these rankings to assess their
academic progress as part of their strategic decision making process.”
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CONTACTS
Pamela Lim
Manager, PR & Communications
Scientific
65-6879-4117
pamela.lim@thomsonreuters.com

NOTES TO EDITOR: (1)Essential Science Indicators

(SM) (ESI) is a resource that enables researchers to conduct ongoing,
quantitative analyses of research performance and track trends in science.
Covering a multidisciplinary selection of more than 11,000 journals from
around the world, this in-depth analytical tool offers data for ranking
scientists, institutions, countries, and journals. This unique and
comprehensive compilation of science performance statistics and science
trends data is based on journal article publication counts and citation data
from Scientific databases. Available as a 10-year rolling file, ESI covers 10
million articles in 22 specific fields of research, and is updated every two
months.

(2)The Web of Science(R) provides seamless access to current and
retrospective multidisciplinary information from nearly 10,000 of the most
prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. Web of Science also
provides a unique search method, cited reference searching. With it, users
can navigate forward, backward, and through the literature, searching all
disciplines and time spans to uncover all the information relevant to their
research. Users can also navigate to electronic full-text journal articles.

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