Scientometrics, Vol. 29. No. 2 (1994) 181-190
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES IN LIFE SCIENCES IN JAPAN SHIGEAKI YAMAZAKI
Medical lnformation Center for Education and Research, Jikei University School of Medicine, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105 (Japan) (Received September 1, 1993) The purpose of this survey is to study the present state and an evaluation of research activities in the field of life sciences in Japan. Based on the 5,107 papers from Japan in 1989 CD-ROM of Excerpta Medica, a quantitative analysis to determine the present state of research activities in life sciences was conducted. There were 7 journals in which more than 50 papers by Japanese authors were published. Brain Research stood first. The ranking list of contributed papers demonstrates a preference of Japanese researchers' interest in international journals from commercial publishers rather than in society journals for the publication of their papers overseas. In view of the number of papers and the paper output per head, research activities of organizations were evaluated. The three national medical schools in Kyushu, Osaka, and Kyoto hold ranked high. A comparison between national medical schools and private medical schools shows that the former have higher productivities. Private medical schools were generally inactive, and they emphasized clinical activities more than research activites.
Introduction
Despite being second to the U.S. in economic power, Japan does not contribute sufficiently to the production of research information. 1 In this age, scientific research plays a great part in the economic development of a country and, therefore, the analysis of research activities is becoming important. The purpose of this survey is to study the present state and an evaluation of research activities in the field of life sciences in Japan observed from the publication of papers. Recently, there has been an increase of interest in bibliometrics, a science which deals with the mathematical and statistical analyses of scientific literature as a useful technique to determine research activities quantitatively. Based on the number of academic journals received by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in the U.S., there are more than 20,000 academic journals in the domain of life sciences in the world. 2 Because of this, Excerpta Medica is published to provide useful abstracts selected from about 4,200 key life science journals of the world. The 1989 issues of Excerpta Medica on CDROM established a record of about 130,000 papers, and 91,334 of those were
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published in 1989. The papers from Japan which appeared in foreign journals out of the above 91,334 papers were picked and a quantitative analysis based upon the number of papers was made. Materials and methods
Excerpta Medica is an abstract journal published in the Netherlands and an important journal as a secondary reference material in life sciences centering on medicine and pharmaceutical science. Excerpta Medica has been chosen for this survey because it has a broad international coverage. From the CD-ROM version of Excerpta Medica, 5,116 papers having "Japan" addresses of the first authors' affiliations which appeared in 1989 issues of foreign journals were selected. From these, 9 papers with names having "Japan" addresses were excluded because they were not written in by Japanese authors. Therefore 5,107 papers from Japan published in overseas journals were used for this research materials. Life sciences in Japan considered from journals that published papers: characteristics seen from ranking of such journals
The kinds of journals which Japanese researchers contribute their papers was examined (Table 1). In 1989 there were 7 journals in which more than 50 papers by Japanese authors were published. Brain Research stood first with 149 papers. Cancer Research ranked second and Cancer fourth. Together they published 173 papers. Neuroscience Letters, international quick report in the area of neurology, was in fifth place. In the field of clinical medicine, Acta Oto-Laryngologica ranked tenth and Diabetics Research and Clinical Practice thirteenth. Otorhinolaryngology in Japan is one of the internationally outstanding disciplines of clinical medicine. According to the journal ranked by times cited in 1989 Jottrnal Citation Repotr Joarltal of Biological Chemistry is cited most in the field of natural sciences in the world but Journal of Biological Chemistry is ranked fourteenth in this survey.
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S. YAMAZAKI: LIFE SCIENCES IN JAPAN Table 1 Ranking of journals in which papers from Japan were published Rank
Journal Title
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 " 12 13 " 15 " 17 18
Brain Res Cancer Res Biochem Biophys Res commun Cancer Neurosci Lett Am J Physiol Mutat Res Biochim Biophys Acta J Immunol Acta Oto Laryngol Endocrinology Acta Neuropathol Diabetes Res Clin Pract J Biol Chem Cancer Chemother Pharmacol J Nucl Med J Invest Dermatol Nephron Virchows Arch Acta Endocrinol Infect Immun
20 "
Country
No. of Papers
NLD USA USA USA 1RL USA NLD NLD USA SWE USA DEU NLD USA DEU USA USA CtlE DEU DNK USA
149 97 84 76 74 59 55 48 47 42 42 41 40 40 38 38 37 36 36 34 34
It is noteworthy that above the tenth rank there were 4 journals from Elsevier, international
publishers
of
academic
publications
in
the
Netherlands.
This
demonstrates a preference of Japanese researchers' interest in international journals from commercial publishers rather than in society journals for the publication of their papers overseas. Considering the refereeing system, international journals from commercial publishers are supporting contributors by the low rejection rate. Moreover, international journals in general provide for rapid publication than the A m e r i c a n and British society journals and tend to publish papers without page charge.
Characteristics observed from subject areas of journals In making an analysis of subject areas of the papers from Japan published in overseas journals, the journals were classified by subject area in accordance with the journal classification formulated by Excerpta Medica (Table 2). For this purpose,
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4,272 papers in 304 journals which published more than 5 papers from Japan each were selected. This number represents 84% of all the papers from the survey. Each discipline exceeding 1.7% of the constituents were listed independently and those below that percentage were grouped together. Table 2 Subject areas of the papers from Japan Subject Clinical Medicine Biochemistry Neuroscience Immunology/Microbiology
Cancer Pharmacology Physiology
Neuropsychiatry Radiology Hematology Endocrinology Dermatology
Cardiovascular Diseases Otorhinolaryngology Pathology
Gastroenterology Pediatrics Genetics/Molecular Biology Other Total
No. of Papers
Percentage
617 370 349 348 325 318 268 227 216 157 154 130 125 113 100 97 72 72 214
14.4 8.7 8.2 8.2 7.6 7.4 6.3 5.3 5.1 3.7 3.6 3.0 2.9 2.7 2.3 2.3 1.7 1.7 5.0
4272
100
Clinical medicine accounted for 14.4%. This include internal medicine, surgery and smaller disciplines. The distribution by subject area shows biochemistry, immunology, microbiology and neurosciences as the leading subjects. It also shows that cancer is an important theme for researchers in clinical medicine and that neuroscience and neuropsychiatry together in the neurological area are the themes tackled by many Japanese researchers. Radiological science is an area innovated by the advent of high-level diagnostic technologies such as computer tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and papers on this subject have been actively produced. Otorhinolaryngology is not a major research area but Japan is recognized for significant achievements internationally.
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Trial evaluation by organization On the basis of papers by organization and the paper output per head, an evaluation of research activities was conducted. The paper output per head is the numeral value obtained by dividing the number of papers produced by the number of researchers. In finding the number of researchers with each organization, i referred to the Directory of Medical Education Organizations 1988-1989 regarding the faculty of medicine at universities and the Directory of Medical Science Researchers 1988-1989 regarding the faculty of pharmaceutical sciences, the faculty of dentistry, and the national and private research institutes. Those directories do not contain research assistants and part-time lecturers. The papers from university authors accounted for 80.5% of the 5,096 papers in my analysis. This indicates that universities are the places of important research activities in the field of life sciences. Those from national and private research institutes accounted for 10.4%, hospitals 5.1% and industry 4.0%, respectively. Ranking of universities The number of papers from universities was list sequentially by medicine, pharmaceutical sciences, dentistry and other schools (Table 3). The so-called former imperial university group ranked higher. Before the Second World War, there were seven imperial universities in Japan. If you compare this evaluation with that of research results in other fields of sciences, the ranking in life sciences shows a different tendency. Kyushu University stood first rank. Although University of Tokyo is most famous in Japan, the place of its medical school was ranked lower. From the ranking by the paper output per head, the activities of Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, a public university, and Shimane Medical University, a new national school, should be noted; they stood ninth and tenth, respectively. Regarding national universities except the former 7 imperial universities, the faculty of medicine at Kanazawa, Kobe, Kumamoto and Shinshu ranked high. Private universities were generally inactive in view of the paper output per head and the number of papers. A comparison of the paper output per head by grouping universities into three, that is the school of medicine, the school of pharmaceutical sciences and the school of dentistry, showed 0.27 for medicine, 0.14 for pharmaceutical sciences and 0.06 for dentistry. As compared with high productivity of papers at the school of medicine, the paper production in the areas of pharmaceutical sciences and dentistry was obviously inactive.
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Table 3 Ranking of universities No. Rank of Papers *Kyushu U, Fac of Med *Osaka U Med Sch *Kyoto U, Fac of Med *U of Tokyo, Fae of Med *Tohoku U Sch of Med *Nagoya U Seh of Med Kobe U Sch of Med *Hokkaido U Seh of Med Kumamoto U Sch of Med Kanazawa U Seh of Med Tokyo Med & Dent U, Fac of Med U of Tsukuba Sch of Med Kyoto Pref U of Med Niigata U Sch of Med Keio U Sch of Med
243 239 224 196 130 109 93 90 86 74 65 64 58 57 56
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Paper Output per Head 1.53 *Kyushu U, Fac of Med 1.00 *Kyoto U, Fac of Med 1.00 *Osaka U Med Sch 0.89 Kobe U Sch of Med 0.63 *Nagoya U Sch of Med 0.61 Kumamoto U Sch of Med 0.59 *Tohoku U Sch of Med 0.52 *U of Tokyo, Fac of Med 0.52 Kyoto Pref U of Med 0.50 Shimane Med U 0.49 *Hokkaido U Sch of Med 0.48 *ltokkaido U, Fac of Pharma Sci (I.47 Shinshu U, Fac of Med 0.42 Kanazawa U Sch of Med 0.40 Tokyo Med & Dent U, Fac of Med
* Former imperial university Table 4 Ranking of research institues No. Rank of Papers Nat Cancer Center
46
1
Tokyo Metropolitan Inst Gerontology Center for Adult Diseases
39 37
2 3
Nat Cardiovascular Center Jpn Found for Cancer Res Nat Institute of Health Mitsubishi-Kasei Inst of Life Science Nat Inst of Radiological Sciences Nat Children's Med Res Center Nat Inst for Environmental Studies Nat Inst of Hygienic Sciences
31 24 19 19 18 18 17 16
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Okazaki Nat Res Inst of Physiol Sci
16
12
186
Paper Output per Head 1.11 Tokyo Metropolitan lnst Gerontology 1.09 Nat Medical Center 0.95 Mitsubishi-Kasei lnst of Life Science 0.80 Radiation Effect Res Foundation 0.37 Nat Cancer Center 0.35 Nat lnst for Environmental Studies (I.30 Okazaki Nat Res Inst of Physiol Sci 0.29 Nat Kyushu Cancer Center 0.28 Japanese Found for (lancer Res 0.27 Center for Adult Diseases (I.26 Tokyo Metropolitan lnst of Med Sci 0.24 Aichi Prefectural Colony
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Ranking of research institutes The ranking by number of papers shows the National Cancer Center in first place, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology in second place, the Center for Adult Diseases, Osaka in third place, the National Cardiovascular Center in fourth place and the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research in fifth place (Table 4). In terms of the paper output per head, Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology held first place. While Mitsubishi-Kasei Institute of Life Sciences took sixth place in the number of papers together with the National Institute of Health, it was third place in the paper output per head and proved that it was an important research organization in life sciences. The Okazaki National Research Institute of Physiological Science and the Institute Physical and Chemical Research were not even in tenth place since both conducted basic researches from a long-term viewpoint. Ranking of hospitals and industry There were 260 published papers from hospitals with Toranomon Hospital at the top. This number represents 5.1% of all the published papers from Japan. There was no significant indication of centering on any specific hospitals. There were 205 published papers from pharmaceutical industry. Takeda Chemical Industries stood first rank and Shionogi & Co. stood second rank (Table 5). The survey of Table 5 Ranking of companies in pharmaceutical industry Rank 1 2 3 4 5 " " 8 " " " "
Company
No. of Papers
Takeda Chemical Industries Shionogi & Co. Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co. Banyu Pharmaceutical Co. Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. Eisai Co. Tanabe Pharmaceutical Co. Ajinomoto Dainippon Pharmaceutical Co. Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co. Kyowa Fermentation Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co. Other
27 16 8 7 6 6 6 5 5 5 5 5 104
Total
205
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investments by Japan's leading industries in research and development in 1986 showed that such industries as automobile, communications, computers, electricity and steel were major investors and that in pharmaceutical industry Takeda and Shionogi ranked twenty-second and forty-second, respectively. 3 Correlation between papers and number of university faculty members
Medical schools are core organizations where 70% of the papers from Japan are produced for publication in foreign journals. The number of medical schools in Japan had been constant at 46 for a long time after the World War II, but increased rather suddenly after 1970 and had reached 80 in 1981. In the early 1970s there was certainly a need for more doctors because of the growing demand for medical care.4 Japan has opened 18 new national medical schools and 16 new private medical schools since 1970. In 1989, the number of medical schools in Japan totalled 80. A figure of correlation between the number of papers and that of faculty members by way of example of medical schools was prepared (Fig. 1). The figure shows that three
300KYUSHU
OSAKA Q
KYOTO
200
TOKYO 9
e,J
TOHOKU
I O0
,
9
,
PRIVATE Med Sch
in Tokyo area
0 0
I (30
200
Faculty
300
400
,:Medical Schools
Fig. 1. Correlation between papers and faculty
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medical schools in Kyushu, Osaka and Kyoto hold ranked high. Although private medical schools in Tokyo area had a good number of faculty members, fewer papers were produced. Most of those private medical schools emphasized clinical activities more than research activities. Then, the medical schools were grouped into 6 categories, 7 former imperial medical schools, 18 old established national medical schools, 18 new national medical schools, 8 public medical schools, 13 old established private medical schools and 16 new private medical schools, and computed the paper output per head. The former imperial university group showed the highest paper output per head of 0.78. A comparison between national medical schools and private medical schools shows that the former have higher average. A survey that referred to 1976 Science Citation Index indicated that there were few papers from new national medical schools published in foreign journals and they were inactive, 5 but the present survey showed that the research activities of new national medical schools were placed in value close to old established national medical schools and ranked above private medical schools. Many of those new schools have been in existence for more than 15 years and may have been able to emphasize research activities. At national and public medical schools, in general, papers were produced in proportion to the number of faculty members but not at private medical schools. Conclusion
Today, the evaluation of research activities is becoming important, and there has been an increase of interest in bibliometrics as a useful technique to determine research activities quantitatively. The foregoing is a quantitative analysis to determine the present state of research activities in life sciences based upon the papers from Japan in 1989, obtained from Excerpta Medica. Bibliometric research previously required large computers and a huge outlay, but the advent of CD-ROM and the wide use of personal computers and software have now made easier such research, and more surveys can be expected in the future.
The author would like to thank Mr. IL Fukada, Managing Director of Elsevier Science Publishers in Japan, for his professional suggestions to this research work. This article is based on a paper presented May 19, 1993 at the Ninety-third Annual Meeting of the Medical Library Association, Chicago, Illinois.
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References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
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F. NARIN, J. D. FRAME, The growth of Japanese science and technology. Science, 245 (1989) 600 - 605. K.A. ARNDT, Information excess in medicine, Archives of Dermatology, 128 (1992) 1249-1256. F. KODAMA, How research investment decisions are made in Japanese industry. In: D. EVERED (Eds.), The Evaluation of Scientific Research, Wiley, Chichester, 1989, p. 201. D. UsmP~,, Trends of medical education in Japan, Medical Education, 19 (1985) 258- 265. K. SAWAI, Trends of the papers published in foreign journals by Japanese biomedical researchers, Library and Information Science, 15 (1977) 49 - 66 (in Japanese).
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