Bibliometrics

Subject-level information on this bibliometric data:

Academic impact - rates of citation by subject

  • In general, the CNCI increased over time for most of the research areas. This indicated an increased number of citations relative to the world average for research by staff at New Zealand universities. This is shown by the change in color from blue to shades of light green and yellow.
  • The research area with the highest CNCI was Physics in 2012-2016. This high rate of citation was due a few highly cited articles. This large increase and then subsequent decrease in CNCI for Physics was a key driver of the overall CNCI during this period.
Figure 1: Relative academic impact (CNCI) of New Zealand universities by subject

This heatmap shows the relative academic impact (CNCI) of New Zealand universities by subject. Each row shows the CNCI for a given subject over time. At the higher end of the scale (Physics between 2010-14 and 2013-17) there is a relatively high level of the CNCI for New Zealand universities.

Percentage of world indexed research output by subject

  • Overall, as indicated by the change in colors from blue to lighter blue/orange/red, most areas have seen an increase in share of world output, but the scale of increase is not the same across the research areas.
  • Areas which have shown the largest increase in relative share over time include those broadly in the social sciences (Social Sciences, Economics and Business, and Psychiatry and Psychology).
  • Another area where the share of world output has increased are in primary industry-based areas such as Agricultural Sciences, Plant and Animal Science and Environmental and Ecology. Given the structure of the New Zealand economy, this focus on the primary based areas is not surprising.

Figure 2: Percentage of world output of New Zealand universities by subject

This heatmap shows the percentage of world output of New Zealand universities by subject. Each row shows the percentage of articles/reviews produced by New Zealand universities compared to the world, for a given subject over time. At the higher end of the scale (Economics and Business from 2014-18) there is a relatively high level of percentage of world output.

Domestic collaborations by subject

  • Overall, the percentage of articles/reviews with domestic collaborations vary across research areas, with some similarities in subjects within broad areas. Darker shades of blue indicate a lower percentage of domestic collaboration. This is the case of subject areas such as Mathematics, Physics, and Space Science.
  • The area which has shown the largest percentage of domestic collaboration was Agriculture, with values ranging between 25 and 35 percent from 1990-94 to 2003-07. In 2016-20, the percentage of domestic collaboration was still large, sitting at 21 percent.
  • Also, Plant and Animal Science, and Environmental and Ecology have seen a relatively large change in the percentage of domestic collaboration over the years. For example, Plant and Animal Science was at 15 percent of articles with domestic collaboration in 1990-94 and then went up to 24 percent in 2001-05.

Figure 3: Percentage of domestic collaborations in New Zealand by subject

This heatmap shows the percentage of domestic collaborations of New Zealand universities by subject. Each row shows the percentage of domestic collaboration for a given subject over time. Darker shades at the higher end of the scale (Agricultural Sciences between 1990-94 and 2003-07) indicate a relatively high percentage of domestic collaborations. At the lower end of the scale (all rows from Mathematics and below) there is a relatively small percentage of domestic collaborations.

International collaborations by subject

  • All research areas have seen a consistent increase in percentage of international collaborations from the mid-1990s. This is shown by the change in color from dark shades of blue to light shades of blue, green or even orange and red.
  • Space Science was the subject area that had the largest increase in percentage of international collaboration, going from 42 percent in 1989-93 to 93 percent in 2015-19.  The bright red color is in correspondence with the highest level of international collaboration.
  • Other areas with high levels of international collaboration included Immunology, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Geosciences, and Physics.

Figure 4: Percentage of international collaborations in New Zealand

This heatmap shows the percentage of international collaborations of New Zealand universities by subject. Each row shows the percentage of international collaboration for a given subject over time. At the higher end of the scale (Space from 1989-93) there is a relatively high percentage of international collaborations. At the lower end of the scale (all lines on the left end side, well into the nineties) there is a relatively small percentage of international collaborations.