TAIPEI, Taiwan, April 28 /PRNewswire/ --

- In Five of 22 Categories at Least One Taiwan Institution Ranks Within the World's Top 100 for 2003-2007 Period

Universities in Taiwan are ranked amongst the top one percent of research institutions from around the world over a period of five years from January 2003 to December 2007. According to data derived from the (1)Essential Science Indicators (SM) (ESI) database of the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters, at least one Taiwan institution is ranked among the world's top 100 in five of 22 categories, namely Agricultural Science, Chemistry, Engineering, Materials Science, and Pharmacology & Toxicology. Engineering and Materials Science were two fields in which more than one Taiwan university was represented within the top 100.

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Essential Science Indicators is a bi-monthly compilation of the (2)Web of Science(R), the world's most authoritative citation database used at more than 3,500 research institutions around the world and in more than 40 countries. Derived from ISI Web of Science and monitored in Essential Science Indicators, this ranking of Taiwan universities allows for variations and changes of university names to be managed in a consistent manner. The ranking is based on each institution's research output in high-standard international scholarly journals and is considered as evidence of their academic excellence. This approach differs from that used in other university rankings, most of which are consolidated based on multiple aspects of university research and education using both objective and subjective criteria.

The ranking derived from ESI below shows up to five Taiwan universities that appeared in each of the five categories along with their world standing. Ranking of the universities is based on the total number of citations of their published research papers from January 2003 to December 2007.

Average cites Taiwan World per rank rank Institution Cities Papers paper Agricultural Science 1 82 National Taiwan University 774 260 2.98 2 104 National Chungsing University 652 256 2.55 3 299 National Taiwan Ocean University 200 95 2.11 Chemistry 1 85 National Taiwan University 8377 1905 4.4 2 143 National Tsing Hua University 6071 1279 4.75 3 269 National Cheng Kung University 3928 1035 3.8 4 327 National Chiao Tung University 3155 733 4.3 5 365 National Sun Yat-sen University 2811 720 3.9 Engineering 1 51 National Taiwan University 3089 1718 1.8 2 52 National Cheng Kung University 3085 1832 1.68 3 69 National Chiao Tung University 2775 1673 61.6 4 146 National Tsing Hua University 1627 1013 1.61 5 235 National Central University 1112 650 1.71 Materials Science 1 37 National Tsing Hua University 3347 883 3.79 2 52 National Taiwan University 2740 819 3.35 3 53 National Cheng Kung University 2726 1154 2.36 4 98 National Chiao Tung University 1835 496 3.7 5 221 National Central University 991 282 3.51 Pharmacology & Toxicology 1 61 National Taiwan University 1638 334 4.9 2 135 Taipei Medical University 1122 226 4.96 3 237 National Yang Ming University 711 164 4.34

In summary with the collating of all 22 categories, the top 10 Taiwan universities appear as follows:

All Fields Average cites Taiwan World per rank rank Institution Cities Papers paper 1 171 National Taiwan University 53,185 14,623 3.64 2 372 National Cheng Kung University 24,162 8,463 2.86 3 467 National Tsing Hua University 18,514 5,649 3.28 4 507 National Yang Ming University 16,459 3,680 4.47 5 584 National Chiao Tung University 14,057 5,929 2.37 6 737 National Central University 10,251 3,488 2.94 7 766 National Sun Yat-sen University 9,651 3,721 2.59 8 808 Chang Gung University 8,926 2,847 3.14 9 881 National Chungsing University 7,760 3,177 2.44 10 890 Kaohsiung Medical University 7,617 2,257 3.37

"The ranking result derived from ESI reflects the citation impact of Taiwan universities which has been growing significantly these past five years," said Mr. Mark Garlinghouse, Vice President, Asia Pacific for the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters. "Methodological consistency is important to maintain statistical validity, especially for research evaluation. Since 2001, Scientific has been applying consistent methodology in ESI and continuously improving its quality. As the leading global provider of authoritative information to research communities, we are committed to ensuring the integrity of our information in research evaluation and supporting the local research community with value-added resources such as informed and balanced analysis to help them evaluate their academic positioning."

Ms. Nobuko Miyairi, Senior Information Analyst for the Scientific business of Thomson Reuters, commented, "When interpreting these university rankings, it is important to consider the size of the universities as well as the research focus in their academic pursuit. Universities with a large number of researchers, such as National Taiwan University and National Cheng Kung University, tend to dominate these rankings if ranking is based on the number of papers published or citations received as a total. National Chiao Tung University, National Tsing Hua University and National Central University compete with these two biggest institutions in physical science and applied sciences."

She added, "A strong focus in certain disciplines will give some universities an advantage in specific fields such as Pharmacology & Toxicology in the case of Taipei Medical University and National Yang Ming University. University administrators and evaluators are encouraged to consider not only domestic rankings but also the world ranking of their institutions, and the time-series change in these rankings to assess their academic progress as part of their strategic decision making process."

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CONTACTS Pamela Lim Manager, PR & Communications Scientific +65-6879-4117 pamela.lim@thomsonreuters.com

NOTES TO EDITOR: (1)Essential Science Indicators

(SM) (ESI) is a resource that enables researchers to conduct ongoing, quantitative analyses of research performance and track trends in science. Covering a multidisciplinary selection of more than 11,000 journals from around the world, this in-depth analytical tool offers data for ranking scientists, institutions, countries, and journals. This unique and comprehensive compilation of science performance statistics and science trends data is based on journal article publication counts and citation data from Scientific databases. Available as a 10-year rolling file, ESI covers 10 million articles in 22 specific fields of research, and is updated every two months.

(2)The Web of Science(R) provides seamless access to current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from nearly 10,000 of the most prestigious, high impact research journals in the world. Web of Science also provides a unique search method, cited reference searching. With it, users can navigate forward, backward, and through the literature, searching all disciplines and time spans to uncover all the information relevant to their research. Users can also navigate to electronic full-text journal articles.

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Pamela Lim, Manager, PR & Communications, Scientific, +65-6879-4117, pamela.lim@thomsonreuters.com ; Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20080424/NYTH069LOGO , PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com