Quality of Estonian science estimated through bibliometric indicators (1997–2007)

The main goal of this paper is to provide an analysis of bibliometric indicators of the quality of Estonian science in comparison to its neighbours Latvia and Lithuania during the 11-year period from 1997 to 2007. Since 1990, Estonian and Lithuanian scientists more than tripled the number of articles they published in journals indexed by the Thomson Reuters Web of Science. The number of articles from Latvia has decreased relative to the general increase of published articles in the world. According to the Essential Science Indicators database, papers published by Estonian scientists had the highest impact (7.87) compared to all other former Communist bloc countries including Hungary (7.83), Latvia (5.92), Lithuania (4.95), and Russia (3.98). While Latvia failed to increase the productivity and Lithuania to improve the quality of their scientific publications, Estonia succeeded in reducing the gap both in the productivity and impact of its publications compared to the world leading countries. The observation of changes during the last three years allows identifying Agricultural Sciences, Molecular Biology & Genetics, and Social Sciences as three fastest growing fields in Estonia.

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