Evaluation of technical-industrial institutes – Publication and
citation analysis
Dag W. Aksnes
April 2015
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Preface
This report presents a bibliometric analysis of the technical-industrial institutes in Norway
and is a background report for the evaluation of the institutes. It was commissioned by the
Research Council of Norway and was written by Research Professor Dag W. Aksnes (project
leader) at the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU).
Oslo, 30.04.15
Sveinung Skule Espen Solberg
Director Head of research
© The Research Council of Norway 2016
The Research Council of Norway
P.O.Box 564
NO-1327 Lysaker
Telephone: +47 22 03 70 00
Telefax: +47 22 03 70 01
[email protected]
www.rcn.no/english
Oslo, February 2016
ISBN 978-82-12-03474-7 (pdf)
The report can be ordered and downloaded at
www.forskningsradet.no/publikasjoner
http://www.forskningsradet.no/publikasjoner
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Contents
Preface ..................................................................................................................................................... 2
Summary ................................................................................................................................................. 5
1 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 8
1.1 Panel evaluation of the Norwegian technical-industrial research institutes ............................ 8
1.2 Supporting documentation for the evaluation ......................................................................... 9
1.3 The bibliometric analysis assignment ...................................................................................... 10
1.4 Report structure ..................................................................................................................... 10
2 Data and methods .............................................................................................................................. 11
2.1 Data sources ............................................................................................................................ 11
2.2 Methods .................................................................................................................................. 14
2.3 Citation analyses ...................................................................................................................... 15
3 Overall analysis of the institutes ........................................................................................................ 19
3.1 Scientific publishing ................................................................................................................. 19
3.1.1 Scientific publishing measured by publication points .................................................. 19
3.1.2 Scientific publishing by publication channels ............................................................... 24
3.1.3 Scientific publishing by subfields .................................................................................. 27
3.2 Citation indicators ................................................................................................................... 30
3.3 Scientific collaboration indicators ........................................................................................... 33
4 Reflections .......................................................................................................................................... 37
Appendix 1 Analysis of individual institutes .......................................................................................... 40
A1.1 Christian Michelsen Research AS (CMR) ............................................................................... 40
A1.2 Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) – nuclear research ..................................................... 44
A1.3 Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) – other research ........................................................ 48
A1.4 International Research Institute of Stavanger AS (IRIS) ........................................................ 53
A1.5 Norwegian Marine Technology Research Institute AS (MARINTEK) ..................................... 57
A1.6 Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) ............................................................................... 61
A1.7 NORSAR ................................................................................................................................. 65
A1.8 Norut Narvik .......................................................................................................................... 69
A1.9 Norut Tromsø ........................................................................................................................ 73
A1.10 Norwegian Computing Center (NR) .................................................................................... 77
A1.11 SINTEF Energy Research AS ................................................................................................. 81
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A1.12 SINTEF Petroleum Research AS ........................................................................................... 85
A1.13 SINTEF Building and Infrastructure ..................................................................................... 89
A1.14 SINTEF ICT............................................................................................................................ 93
A1.15 SINTEF Materials and Chemistry ......................................................................................... 98
A1.16 SINTEF Technology and Society ........................................................................................ 104
A1.17 Tel-Tek ............................................................................................................................... 108
A1.18 Uni Research AS ................................................................................................................ 112
Appendix 2 Norwegian engineering science in an international context ........................................... 118
A2.1 Scientific publishing............................................................................................................. 118
A2.2 Citation indicators ............................................................................................................... 132
A2.3 Collaboration indicators ...................................................................................................... 136
Appendix 3 General introduction to bibliometric indicators .............................................................. 142
A3.1 The Web of Science database ................................................................................................. 142
A3.2 Citation indicators ................................................................................................................... 143
A3.3 What is measured through citations? ..................................................................................... 143
A3.4 Some basic citation patterns ................................................................................................... 144
A3.5 Limitations ............................................................................................................................... 145
A3.6 Bibliometric indicators versus peer reviews ........................................................................... 146
A3.7 Co-authorship as an indicator of collaboration ...................................................................... 148
References ........................................................................................................................................... 150
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Summary
This report provides a bibliometric analysis of the output of the technical-industrial (TI)
institutes in terms of scientific publications. It focuses on the productivity of the institutes,
their publication profiles, the scientific impact of their research as reflected in citation
indictors as well as their collaboration patterns, analysed through co-authorship. It covers
publications by the institutes’ staff during the period 2009–2013, which are registered in the
national Research Information System (CRIStin) and attributed to the institutes. This means
that the analysis covers publications in officially recognised scientific publication channels
but not other types of output such as grey literature and reports. Different categories of
entry in the CRIStin database generate different numbers of ‘publication points’ and
therefore amounts of funding in the Norwegian performance-based funding system.
Large differences in the volume of scientific publishing
The volume of scientific publishing varies greatly among the institutes. The SINTEF
Foundation is the largest and accounts for 41 per cent of the scientific publishing of the TI
institute
