PUBLICATIONS AND CITATIONS
8.4 STRATEGIC FIELDS OF RESEARCH IN MALAYSIA (2001-2005)
In Figure 8.3, Malaysia’s Top 20 Fields of Research in 2001-2005 by world share of ISI publications is shown. Physical Chemistry continues to be the most productive field with world contribution of 0.6%. Agricultural Chemistry is next with about 0.52%. In comparing the present graph to the Figure 8.6(b) of the S&T Indicators 2004 report, there have been many significant changes in the last 5 years. It must be noted that Material Science & Engineering and Artificial Intelligence, Robotics & Auto-Control are strategically new entrants. The emphasis on Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology, may have led to a 0.47% Malaysia’s share of the world papers in this field for this period.
The majority of the papers in Physical Chemistry /Chemical Physics are published in the journal, Acta Crystallographica E, which has a Impact Factor of 0.49 (2004).
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PUBLICATIONS AND CITATIONS PUBLICATIONS AND CITATIONSPhysicalChem/ChemicalPhys AgriculturalChemistry
FoodScience/Nutrition Biotechnol&ApplMicrobiol
ChemicalEngineering EnvironmtEngineering/Energy
Inorganic&NuclChemistry MaterialsSciandEngn
Environment/Ecology Optics&Acoustics
Entomology/PestControl EngineeringMgmt/General
Elect&ElectronicEngn AnimalSciences
AquaticSciences PlantSciences
AI,Robotics&AutoControl Agriculture/Agronomy
ClinImmunol&InfectDis EngineeringMathematics 0.0
0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
0.6 0.6 0.52 0.47 0.47 0.37 0.37 0.33 0.3 0.28 0.28 0.27 0.25 0.24 0.23 0.23 0.22 0.22 0.21 0.20 0.20
Source: Thomson ISI®National Science Indicators Deluxe 2006 edition (1982-2005)
%ofWorldShareofPapers
Fields
Figure 8.3: Top 20 fields of Research in Malaysia for 2001-2005 by Percentage of World Share of Papers
To provide a more in-depth analysis, the following strategic fields will be studied in the context of ASEAN countries and where possible with selected Asia-Pacific countries.
8.4.1 Applied Physics/Condensed Matter/Material Sciences
In comparing with developed countries, a useful indicator of R&D technological leadership in S&T can be gauged by the quantity and quality of output in the Applied Physics, Condensed Matter and Material Sciences. Figure 8.4 glaringly illustrates the efforts needed by countries like Malaysia and Thailand to do the catching-up scenario. The emerging Vietnam in this field of research is quite noticeable.
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PUBLICATIONS AND CITATIONS PUBLICATIONS AND CITATIONSSource: Thomson ISI®National Science Indicators Deluxe 2006 edition (1982-2005)
Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam 0
500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000
147 373
81
3,791
356 251
Philippines 3%(19)
Malaysia 20%(111) Indonesia
5%(29) Vietnam
3%(14) Thailand
33%(182)
Singapore 36%(192)
Source: Thomson ISI®National Science Indicators Deluxe 2006 edition (1982-2005). (The numbers in bracket represent the number of papers)
Figure 8.4: Number of Papers in Applied Physics/Condensed Matter/
Material Sciences among selected Asean countries
Figure 8.5: Number of Papers in the field of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology in ASEAN (2001-2005)
NumberofPapers
Selected Asean countries
Space Physics & Aerospace Engineering
Space Physics & Aerospace Engineering can be considered as a newly emerging field in Malaysia and its overall contribution in the 2001-2005 is compared with other significant ASEAN contributors. The thrust emphasis on this field as accentuated in the 9MP would possibly help to develop this strategically infant research area in Malaysia. Out of the 57,229 papers published worldwide, Malaysia’s contribution was 0.09%, while Thailand and Singapore were 0.065% and 0.11% respectively.
8.4.2 Biotechnology & Applied Microbiology
Biotechnology has been identified as one of main thrust areas of the 9MP and is expected to be a main driver of economic growth in the NSTP2. It must be noted that the comparison below in this thrust area may not reflect the true picture of the extensiveness of the applied Biotechnology field. However, the ISI classification based on the NSIOD 2006 for Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology would provide a useful tool to assess the output in the subfield of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology. In Figure 8.5, it is found that the gap in the number of ISI® based publications between Thailand and Singapore is surprisingly small considering the emphasis and investments that Singapore has accorded to this sector. It is pertinent to note that much effort is obviously needed by Malaysia to join the ranks of these 2 ASEAN giants in this field. Among other ASEAN countries not shown in Figure 8.5, there is no contribution from Cambodia and Laos while Myanmar’s contribution is negligible at about 0.2%.
A vital comparison in Figure 8.6 is the ever-widening gap between the ASEAN countries and some Asia-Pacific countries and India. The indications are very clear about the challenges ahead for Malaysia in the ASEAN or in the Asian-Australia region
In the field of Biotechnology
& Applied Microbiology, Malaysia’s world contribution has gone up from 0.32% in 2001 to 0.70% in 2005.
In the case of Thailand, it reached a peak of 0.93% in 2003 and declined to 0.75%
of the world share in 2005.
Malaysia’s share of world output in the Applied Physics/
Condensed Matter/
Material Sciences has doubled from 0.06% world share in 1996 to 0.14% in 2005.
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PUBLICATIONS AND CITATIONS PUBLICATIONS AND CITATIONSSource: Thomson ISI®National Science Indicators Deluxe 2006 edition (1982-2005)
Indonesia Malaysia Philippines Singapore Thailand Vietnam 0
500 1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500 3,000 3,500 4,000
147 373
81
3,791
356 251
Philippines 3%(19)
Malaysia 20%(111) Indonesia
5%(29) Vietnam
3%(14) Thailand
33%(182)
Singapore 36%(192)
Source: Thomson ISI®National Science Indicators Deluxe 2006 edition (1982-2005). (The numbers in bracket represent the number of papers)
Figure 8.4: Number of Papers in Applied Physics/Condensed Matter/
Material Sciences among selected Asean countries
Figure 8.5: Number of Papers in the field of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology in ASEAN (2001-2005)
NumberofPapers
Selected Asean countries
Singapore Thailand Malaysia Australia Taiwan S.Korea China India Japan -- 0
500
192 182
111
401 515
1,242
1,517 1,539
2,766
1,000 1,500 2,000 2,500
Figure 8.6: Number of Papers in the field of Biotechnology and Applied Microbiology between selected ASEAN Countries, Asia-Pacific countries and India
Source: Thomson ISI®National Science Indicators Deluxe 2006 edition (1982-2005)
Source: Thomson ISI®National Science Indicators Deluxe 2006 edition (1982-2005) 0
1,000,000
5,826,486 1,303,098 1,274,328 1,204,674 930,649 760,495 554,817 413,001 411,148 382,411
2,000,000 3,000,000 4,000,000 5,000,000 6,000,000
USA JAPAN GERMANY ENGLAND FRANCE CANADA ITALY AUSTRALIA CHINA INDIA
Figure 8.7: The Top Ten countries in terms of Total Share of World Papers for the period 1981-2005
NumberofPapers
Countries
NumberofPapers
Countries