Thomson Reuters published its Global Research Report: Materials Science and Technology on July 1, which contains a careful review of data collected over a period of ten years -- from early 2001 to the beginning of 2011. This 16-page report provides information on the leading institutions and universities for materials science research in three specific areas: those that publish the most papers; those that get cited most frequently; and those that have the highest citation impact.

Out of the three basic criteria, SNU stood 11th in publication output and 9th in citations for materials science research indexed in the Web of Science (the original report included research institutions; here, the rankings are produced where only universities are involved). The number of citations is widely known as a standard for measuring the quality of a paper -- the more the better.

Additionally, in the Special Topics Section, SNU ranked 5th in output of research papers on electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering. Electrospun nanofibrous scaffolds for tissue engineering applications, graphene, and metal-organic frameworks were highlighted in the report due to their implications for global and national economies, offering potential revolutions in electronics, energy storage, and biomedical engineering.

The Regions and Countries section also showed how Korea has rapidly grown in the field. South Korea was placed 5th in national output of materials science research papers indexed in the Web of Science for producing more than 1,000 articles and reviews in the most recent five-year period.

Click to see the report

Written by LEE Ye Ha, SNU English Editor, gabrielle@snu.ac.kr
Proofread by Brett Johnson, SNU English Editor