Relative gain

A graphic representation shows how Japan’s production of natural-science papers has fallen but some institutions shine.

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While Japan’s production of natural science papers continues to fall, a relatively high proportion of its output is of high quality. The country ranked 4th among the top countries in the Nature Index when assessed on its authorship of papers in the index relative to its contribution to the Scopus database, 2012-2017. Some of Japan’s smaller institutions stand out for their efficiency in producing high-quality science.

Bar-charts of Japan's share of articles, compared to few other countries. — Source: Nature Index

Line-charts of Japan's Share in Scopus natural science articles, compared to few other countries. — Source: SCOPUS

Infographic showing change in Japan's FWCI 2007–2017, as well few other countries. — Source: SCOPUS

Bar-charts showing Japan's Scopus articles development, in major science fields, between 2007 and 2017. — Source: SCOPUS

Bar-charts showing Japan's share of world Scopus articles development, in major science fields, between 2007 and 2017. — Source: SCOPUS

Bar-charts showing Japan's change in Scopus articles, in major science fields, between 2007 and 2017. — Source: SCOPUS

Bar-charts showing Japan WFC 2017 rank, the 5th globally for its contribution to the authorship in the Nature Index. — Source: Nature Index

Bar-charts showing Japan normalised WFC 2012-2017 rank, the 4th globally. — Source: Scopus

Line-chart comparing 10 universities in Japan for their quantity of output (2012-2017). — Credit: Nature Index

Nature 555, S54-S55 (2018)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-02905-2

Data analysis by Aaron Ballagh, Bo Wu and Willem Sijp of the Nature Index; and Kana Takasaka and Anders Karlsson at Elsevier.

The Nature Index database tracks the affiliations of high-quality natural science articles, and charts publication productivity for institutions and countries. Article count (AC) includes the total number of affiliated articles. Weighted fractional count (WFC) accounts for the relative contribution of each author to an article, and adjusts for the abundance of astronomy and astrophysics papers. More details here.