Publication output by scientific field, international benchmark (WoS)
publications
research
In which scientific disciplines do Dutch researchers publish? And what does this distribution look like in twenty reference countries? In this data publication, we look at the publication output per scientific discipline.
In short
- Of all reference countries, the Netherlands has the smallest share of publications in the Natural Sciences and Technology.
- The Netherlands have a relatively large share of publications in the medical and social sciences.
- The share of the Agricultural sciences is slightly below average.
What was the publication output in the scientific fields?
| Social sciences | Humanities | Agriculture | Health sciences | Engineering | Natural sciences | |
| CHN | 3,3% | 0,3% | 2,6% | 18,6% | 30,0% | 45,2% |
| KOR | 4,6% | 0,6% | 2,4% | 25,1% | 27,2% | 40,2% |
| SGP | 8,8% | 0,9% | 0,8% | 24,6% | 26,9% | 37,9% |
| FRA | 6,0% | 2,2% | 2,2% | 27,5% | 14,8% | 47,4% |
| JPN | 2,6% | 0,4% | 2,5% | 32,3% | 16,8% | 45,4% |
| DEU | 7,9% | 2,0% | 2,2% | 28,5% | 14,4% | 45,1% |
| ESP | 8,9% | 3,2% | 3,7% | 27,7% | 14,4% | 42,3% |
| AUT | 7,8% | 2,0% | 2,6% | 31,1% | 12,9% | 43,7% |
| FIN | 11,8% | 2,1% | 3,0% | 27,5% | 15,6% | 40,0% |
| ITA | 6,2% | 1,9% | 3,2% | 35,3% | 14,7% | 38,8% |
| CHE | 7,3% | 1,6% | 2,2% | 36,3% | 11,2% | 41,6% |
| SWE | 9,5% | 1,7% | 2,3% | 35,1% | 13,7% | 37,8% |
| NOR | 13,7% | 2,4% | 2,9% | 29,7% | 13,6% | 37,8% |
| CAN | 10,0% | 2,1% | 2,9% | 34,3% | 15,3% | 35,4% |
| BEL | 9,4% | 2,6% | 3,0% | 34,8% | 13,3% | 37,0% |
| AUS | 12,0% | 1,8% | 3,1% | 33,1% | 15,3% | 34,7% |
| UK | 12,9% | 3,6% | 1,8% | 32,0% | 13,3% | 36,4% |
| DNK | 8,6% | 1,5% | 3,1% | 37,7% | 13,4% | 35,7% |
| US | 11,0% | 2,5% | 2,4% | 36,4% | 12,0% | 35,8% |
| IRE | 11,4% | 2,8% | 4,1% | 35,5% | 13,8% | 32,5% |
| NLD | 12,3% | 1,9% | 2,1% | 39,8% | 10,6% | 33,3% |
Data: Download as CSV file
Source: Clarivate Analytics/ WoS database, extraction by Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) and analysis by Rathenau Instituut.
Notes: Figures are presented for the Netherlands and twenty benchmark countries.
Analysis
Of all reference countries, the Netherlands has the smallest share of publications in the Natural Sciences and Engineering. On the other hand, the Netherlands has the largest share in the medical sciences. In addition, the Netherlands also has a relatively large share of publications in the Social Sciences: only Norway and the United Kingdom have a larger share. The share of agricultural publications for the Netherlands (2,1%) lies slightly below the average of all reference countries (2,6%) . The share of the humanities in all Dutch publications is average.
For an explanation of the used definitions and abbreviations we refer to the webpage Definitions for Science in Figures.
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