Development of the scientific research profile of the Netherlands
In this factsheet, we map the research profile of the Netherlands on the basis of scientific publications. In which research fields is the Netherlands active internationally? And how do Dutch researchers perform compared with their colleagues abroad? Dutch science has a citation impact well above the world average in all scientific fields, and ranks in the top 5 of the reference countries in almost all fields. In Natural sciences and Engineering, however, this impact has declined slightly in recent years. The Netherlands publishes relatively much in Health and the Social sciences, and of all reference countries the least in Natural sciences and Engineering combined. The strong growth in the number of publications in Health and the Social sciences took place mainly between 2008 and 2016. The Netherlands' share of worldwide publications is declining slightly in all fields, mainly due to the rise of publications in China.
In short
- In 2024, the Netherlands ranks in the top 5 of reference countries with the highest citation impact score in all scientific fields except Engineering (7th place). In Agriculture and the Social sciences, the Netherlands ranks first.
- Over the period 2008-2024, the number of Dutch publications increases in all scientific fields. The strong growth in the Social sciences took place mainly in 2008-2016.
- The share of publications relative to other countries has declined, mainly due to the rise of China. Without China, it remains more or less the same.
To map the research profile of the Netherlands, we look at the differences in citation impact and publication volume between scientific fields. Citation impact indicates the extent to which scientific publications are cited. The more often publications are cited, the higher the scientific impact of these articles. We compare the Netherlands with twenty reference countries, over the period from 2005-2008 (denoted as 2008) to 2021-2024 (denoted as 2024). The Humanities are not included, because the data for these fields do not allow for reliable conclusions.
For this comparison, we use publication and citation data from the citation index system of the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS), which is based on raw data from Web of Science. These data provide an indication of the development of the Dutch research profile, but do not give a complete picture of all aspects relevant to the quality and size of Dutch science.
Research profile of the Netherlands
In the figure below, the citation impact score is plotted against an indicator of volume: the percentage of Dutch articles in the total number of articles in a scientific field. Arrows indicate the profile a field had in 2008 and the profile it has in 2024. To show the direction of development over this period in a clear way, a straight line has been drawn between 2008 and 2024.
Note: Humanities are not included because the number of publications in the Web of Science database is too small (Van Leeuwen, 2013). Field-normalized citation impact score (global average = 1.0).
Development of citation impact score
The graph above shows a number of developments:
- In 2024, the citation impact score for all fields is well above the global average (1.0).
- The citation impact score in the Social sciences, Health and Agriculture has increased between 2008 and 2024. The increase is largest in the Social sciences, from 1.12 to 1.28.
- Over the period 2008-2024, we see a decline in the citation impact score in the fields of Natural sciences (1.39 to 1.30) and Engineering (1.24 to 1.20). This decline occurs mainly between 2020 and 2024.
A similar picture emerges from the share of publications belonging to the top 10% most cited publications worldwide: all fields score (well) above average. This share increases by 1 to 2 percentage points in Health, the Social sciences and Agriculture. In Engineering, the share of top 10% most cited publications remains stable. In Natural sciences, this share declines by 2 percentage points. Nevertheless, here too the share of top 10% most cited publications, at 14%, is well above the average of the reference countries (11%).
Development in volume
In terms of the relative share of publications, we see a slight decline in the Netherlands across all scientific fields. The rise of China plays a major role in this decline. The share of Chinese publications has increased much more strongly between 2008 and 2024 than that of the reference countries. As a result, China's share in the publications of this set of reference countries increased by 35 percentage points in Engineering, by 30 percentage points in Agriculture and by 22 percentage points in Natural sciences. This causes the share of Agriculture, Natural sciences and Engineering publications to decline in a large majority of the reference countries.
When China is excluded from the reference countries, the share of Dutch publications remains more or less the same in all fields between 2008 and 2024: Agriculture from 2.7% to 2.8%; Natural sciences from 2.4% to 2.7%; Engineering from 2.2% to 2.3%; Health from 3.4% to 3.7%; Social sciences from 3.7% to 4.1%.
In the following sections, we discuss the citation impact score and the share of Dutch publications in more detail, by explicitly comparing them with the reference countries.
Citation impact score: comparison with reference countries
In 2024, the Netherlands ranks in the top 5 of reference countries with the highest citation impact score in all scientific fields except Engineering. In Engineering, the Netherlands drops out of the top 5 in the most recently measured period (2021-2024), to 7th place. Switzerland and the United Kingdom are also in the top 5 for four fields. Only Singapore is in the top 5 for all five fields. In the table below, the position of the Netherlands is underlined for each field.
- In Agriculture and the Social sciences, the Netherlands has the highest citation impact score of all reference countries in 2024.
- In Health, the Netherlands ranks second, after the United Kingdom.
- In Natural sciences, the Netherlands ranks fourth with 1.30, and in Engineering seventh with 1.20.
Development of the position of the Netherlands
If we look at the development of the citation impact score since 2008 in comparison with the reference countries, we see the following:
- The Netherlands developed strongly in the Social sciences between 2008 and 2016: in 2008, the Netherlands ranked third. Since 2016, the Netherlands has ranked first.
- The Netherlands also developed strongly in Agriculture: in 2008, the Netherlands ranked fourth. By 2012, it ranked second, and in 2024 the Netherlands is at the top.
- In Natural sciences, the Netherlands has mostly ranked fourth since 2008.
- In Engineering, the Netherlands dropped from third place in 2008 to seventh place in 2024.
Citation impact at discipline level
Within the scientific fields, too, the Netherlands scores (well) above the global average in 2024 in almost all disciplines. There are five disciplines in which the citation impact score has declined by more than 10%, most of them within the fields of Natural sciences and Engineering:
- Chemistry and chemical technology
- Physics and materials science
- Instruments and instrumentation
- Medical sciences (basic)
- Mathematics
An increase of more than 10% is seen in the following disciplines:
- Astronomy and astrophysics
- Civil engineering and construction
- Health sciences
- Information and communication sciences
- Management and planning
- Psychology
- Interdisciplinary social and behavioural sciences
- Sociology and anthropology
Data at the discipline level can be found in the appendix (see Downloads).
Publication output: comparison with reference countries
The graph below shows, for each country, the percentage distribution of publications across the scientific fields in 2024, ranked by the share of publications that falls within the Natural sciences and Engineering. We see that the Netherlands has the smallest share of publications in the Natural sciences and Engineering combined. It is also notable that the Netherlands has the largest share of publications in Health. The Netherlands also has a large share of publications in the Social sciences.
| Social sciences | Humanities | Health sciences | Agriculture | Engineering | Natural sciences | |
| CHN | 4,03% | 0,36% | 17,88% | 2,93% | 31,08% | 43,72% |
| KOR | 5,18% | 0,64% | 23,96% | 2,56% | 28,10% | 39,56% |
| SGP | 9,15% | 0,91% | 24,46% | 0,92% | 28,00% | 36,57% |
| JPN | 3,07% | 0,44% | 32,66% | 2,42% | 17,05% | 44,36% |
| FRA | 6,76% | 2,16% | 27,72% | 2,22% | 14,76% | 46,38% |
| DEU | 8,47% | 2,04% | 28,85% | 2,15% | 14,37% | 44,13% |
| ESP | 9,22% | 3,28% | 28,15% | 3,71% | 14,32% | 41,32% |
| AUT | 8,62% | 2,12% | 31,19% | 2,48% | 12,96% | 42,63% |
| FIN | 12,72% | 2,18% | 27,56% | 2,82% | 15,77% | 38,95% |
| ITA | 6,75% | 1,98% | 34,89% | 3,15% | 14,66% | 38,56% |
| CHE | 7,70% | 1,63% | 36,89% | 2,15% | 11,00% | 40,62% |
| SWE | 9,99% | 1,70% | 35,07% | 2,35% | 13,86% | 37,03% |
| NOR | 14,51% | 2,39% | 29,45% | 2,83% | 13,86% | 36,96% |
| CAN | 10,42% | 1,99% | 34,30% | 2,76% | 15,38% | 35,16% |
| BEL | 9,83% | 2,51% | 34,95% | 3,08% | 13,46% | 36,18% |
| UK | 13,47% | 3,45% | 31,83% | 1,79% | 13,71% | 35,75% |
| AUS | 12,66% | 1,78% | 33,48% | 2,99% | 15,44% | 33,67% |
| DNK | 9,07% | 1,49% | 37,98% | 3,08% | 13,30% | 35,09% |
| US | 11,46% | 2,43% | 37,10% | 2,34% | 11,57% | 35,11% |
| IRE | 11,95% | 2,64% | 35,98% | 4,05% | 13,76% | 31,62% |
| NLD | 12,81% | 1,99% | 39,49% | 2,19% | 10,63% | 32,89% |
Over the period 2008-2024, the number of Dutch publications increases in all scientific fields. This growth occurs mainly in the period 2008-2016. The growth is strongest in the Social sciences (172%) and in Engineering (109%). In the Social sciences, this growth takes place mainly between 2008 and 2016. In Engineering, the growth took place mainly over the period 2008-2020. As a result, the share of Engineering in Dutch publications rises from 10% in 2008 to 11% in 2024. The share of publications from the Social sciences rises from 9% in 2008 to 13% in 2024. The Social sciences have thus experienced substantial growth. In Agriculture, the number of Dutch publications increases the least (51%), but the growth is stable over the entire period. In Natural sciences, growth in the period 2020-2024 is the smallest, at 6%.
However, growth in the Netherlands in most scientific fields is smaller than the increase in the total number of publications per field, as shown in the graph below. The impact of China on this total growth is very large. The total number of publications from China increased by more than 700% between 2008 and 2024. If we exclude Chinese publications, we see that the growth in the number of Dutch publications is above average.
| % increase in NLD publications | % increase in publication in reference countries | % increase in publication in reference countries, except China | |
| Social | 172 | 187 | 148 |
| Health | 98 | 117 | 108 |
| Engineering | 109 | 225 | 94 |
| Nature | 82 | 94 | 57 |
| Agriculture | 51 | 111 | 45 |
Publication output at discipline level
The volume growth of the disciplines shows a similar picture. In all Social science disciplines (except Economics and Psychology), Dutch publications increase more strongly than in the reference countries. For all Natural sciences and Engineering disciplines, except Astronomy and ICT, the increase is stronger in the reference countries. If we exclude China, the increase in about two thirds of the Natural sciences and Engineering disciplines is stronger than or equal to that in the reference countries.
In the field of Health, Dutch publication output has increased less strongly than in other countries in all disciplines except Health sciences. If we exclude China, we see that the increase in all disciplines is slightly stronger than average.
More data on the disciplines are available in the appendix (see "Downloads").
In conclusion
In comparison with other countries, Dutch scientists publish the most in the field of Health in 2024, and also relatively much in the Social sciences. We have seen that the citation impact score in these fields has increased since 2008. For the Social sciences, the number of publications grew strongly mainly in the period 2008-2016. Since 2016, growth has been more in line with that of the reference countries, as a result of which the share declines slightly in international terms. This share increases by 0.4 percentage points if we exclude China. For Health, we see a similar picture.
Within the Natural sciences and Engineering, the citation impact score was already well above the global average in 2008; this has declined slightly for Engineering and declined for Natural sciences, mainly between 2020 and 2024. In Engineering, the Netherlands dropped from third place in 2008 to seventh place in 2024. In Agriculture, the citation impact score has increased over this period. The share of publications relative to other countries has declined for these three fields, mainly due to the strong rise of Chinese science. Without China, the share of Agriculture and Engineering publications remains roughly the same. The share of Dutch publications in the field of Natural sciences increases by 0.3 percentage points if China is excluded. In comparison with other countries, the Netherlands publishes the least in the fields of Natural sciences and Engineering combined in 2024.
It is difficult to explain the differences observed between the fields in more detail. This is partly because it is not possible to combine the publication data with (international) figures on FTEs or expenditure, as these use a different classification and because the correlation can differ strongly between the fields.
Bronnen
Het CWTS citatie index-systeem, dat is gebaseerd op ruwe data van de Web of Science databestand
Van Leeuwen, T.N. (2013). Bibliometric research evaluations, Web of Science and the social sciences and humanities: a problematic relationship? Bibliometrie - Praxis und Forschung, band 2 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5283/bpf.173
Waltman, L. en N.J. van Eck (2015). Field-normalized citation impact indicators and the choice of an appropriate counting method. In: Journal of Informetrics 9, blz. 872–894. Elsevier.