FACTORS AFFECTING BIBLIOMETRIC INDICATORS OF SCIENTIFIC QUALITY; pp. 199–214

The High Quality Science Index (HQSI) was constructed on the basis of the release of the Essential Science Indicators (Thomson Reuters) for the period from January 1, 2002 to August 31, 2012. The HQSI was computed for a country or territory as a sum of normalised scores of the mean impact (citations per paper) and the percentage of papers that reach the top-1% citation ranking. Expectedly, countries or territories that are producing larger Gross National Income per capita and allocate higher percentage of the produced economic wealth for the research and development (R and D) were more likely to achieve prominence in the scientific publications. The size of the country and its population were not important factors to excel in scientific research. Since economic and socio-demographic factors only partly predicted the quality of science in a given country or territory, there is considerable space for historical and science policy factors that could affect the quality of science in a given country. Several countries being in almost identical starting positions twenty years ago have developed on completely different trajectories dependent on policies and decisions made by their policy makers. Possibilities of how to improve reliability of measures of scientific quality have been discussed.