Analysis of academic research performance from publications in the field of Computer Science

Abstract

Research performance in academia is treated as one of the metrics for national competency. Many countries devote a high level of commitment and resources to improving their research performance. This paper illustrates computer science research covering a ten year period (2001-2010) in several countries in Asia and prominent countries represented by the Group of Eight (G8). The study used different indices to analyze aspects of scientific publications, such as publication quantity, popular subjects and research quality, to evaluate a country’s academic performance. We generalize the previous indexes and create novel indexes to construct an integrated study to evaluate and gain a clear view of countries’ research performance. Our research found that countries with the highest productivity seldom have the strongest impact on research. Some countries, such as Malaysia, have a greater impact than many other countries even though they demonstrate lower production. Our research suggested that scholars in countries with lower production can pay more attention to interdisciplinary applications to increase their competency in the area of computer science.