The average number of citations per publication is used for assessing the scientific impact of publications, especially at a country level. This indicator – henceforth referred to as “citation impact”– is calculated as the ratio of the total number of citations to the total number of publications, without taking into account differences in citation practices among scientific fields.

Based on the cross-national data of the NSI / Web of Science database, Figure 2.3.1 shows the citation impact of the publications of Greece, the EU member countries and the OECD. In the last five years 2016-2020, the publications of Greek institutions receive an average of 9.38 citations per publication, while the average of citations per publication in the EU is 7.82 and in the OECD 7.56.

Throughout the period 2006-2020, the citation impact of the publications of Greek organizations is constantly increasing and in fact at rates significantly higher than the impact indices of the EU and OECD countries (Chart 2.3.2).

Figure 2.3.1

Figure 2.3.2

Rate of change: 1 + [(number of publications in year “n” – number of publications in year “n-1”)/ number of publications in year “n-1”]. The rate is 1, if the number of publications is the same across the years compared.

The “relative impact” indicator, as shown in Figure 2.3.3, compares citations -per-publication average for Greece against the EU and OECD. For the entire period 2006-2020, the relative impact index of the publications of the Greek bodies registers an upward trend approaching the publications of the EU and OECD member countries. Since 2010, the relative index of impact of the publications of Greek organizations exceeds that of the EU and OECD countries, a performance that has been expanding during the last five years 2016-2020 (1.20 for the EU, and 1.24 for the OECD).

Figure 2.3.3

Based on the data for the five-year period 2016-2020, the relative impact index of Greece among the totality of the OECD member countries is 1.24 (Figure 2.3.4).

Figure 2.3.4

Data for Iceland and Luxembourg missing because of small number of publications (less than 1,000).