Scientometric analysis of physics （1979-2008）：A quantitative description of scientific impact

• Published in: Science China. Physics, mechanics & astronomy Vol. 54; no. 1; pp. 176 - 182
• Main Author: ZHENG YanNing YUAN JunPeng PAN YunTao ZHAO XiaoYuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: IBM公司; 东京大学; 定量描述; 物理学; 研究人员; 科学政策; 计量分析; 贝尔实验室
• ISSN: 1674-7348; 1869-1927

Citations are a way to show how researchers build on existing research to further evolve research.The citation count is an indication of the influence of specific articles.The importance of citations means that it is valuable to analyze the articles that are cited the most.This research investigates highly-cited articles in physics （1979-2008） using citation data from the ISI Web of Science.In this study,1544205 articles were examined.The objective of the analysis was to identify and list the highly-productive countries,institutions,authors,and fields in physics.Based on the analysis,it was found that the USA is the world leader in physics,and Japan has maintained the highest growth rate in physics research since 1990.Furthermore,the research focus at Bell Labs and IBM has played important roles in physics.A striking fact is that the five most active authors are all Japanese,but the five most active institutions are all in the USA.In fact,only The University of Tokyo is ranked among the top 11 institutions,and only American authors have single-author articles ranked among the top 19 articles.The highest-impact articles are distributed across 25 subjects categories.Physics,Multidisciplinary has 424 articles,and is ranked at No.1 in total articles;followed by Physics,Condensed Matter.The study can provide science policy makers with a picture of innovation capability in this field and help them make better decisions.Hopefully,this study will stimulate useful discussion among scientists and research managers about future research directions.