Japan’s share of scientific publications tumbled from 9% in 2000 to 7% in 2009, in line with other major mature economies. However, the Japan’s “citation impact,” which compares a country’s average citations per paper against a baseline world average, has declined compared to similar economies. The decline is partly attributed to a lower number of highly cited papers. Based on 2005–2009 publications in the Web of Science database, Physics (11%), Pharmacacology & Toxicology (11%) and Materials Science (10%) were the fields in which the highest shares of Japanese publications appeared. On a worldwide basis, Immunology (8%), Space Science (7%), Plant and Animal Science (7%), and Geosciences (6%) accounted for the highest share of Japanese papers published from 2000 to 2009 . These were also the fields in which Japan produced its largest share of highly cited papers. Japan is less likely to collaborate with other nations on publications than comparable countries. Its most frequent collaborator is the US, but the number of collaborations with other Asian nations is increasing.

Source: Thomson Reuters