The Nature Publishing Group has produced the “Nature Publishing Index 2013” (NPI) for the Asia-Pacific region. The NPI tracks publication of primary research articles in its group of journals from each country. Articles with authors from the region increased 36%, comprising 31% of the global NPI, up from 28%. Based on the corrected count (CC), which accounts for the relative contribution of authors to each article, the most productive countries, in order, were Japan, China, Australia, South Korea and Singapore. Japan ranked as the leader in publications in life and physical sciences as well as earth and environmental sciences. China had the most publications based on absolute counts and the highest number of international collaborations, but also the lowest researcher efficiency, measured as the CC for each of the country’s researchers. Australia increased its output by over 50%. South Korea’s growth in the NPI outpaced China’s, and it ranked third after Japan and China in productivity in chemistry and physical sciences. Of all of the Asia-Pacific countries, Singapore has the fastest growth rate as well as high efficiency and collaboration.

Source: Nature Publishing Group