Australian medical research measures up

The National Health & Medical Research Council’s bibliometric report, Measuring Up 2013, shows that the Australian health and medical research sector continues to produce high-quality research.

The report is a five-year analysis of biomedical publications produced by NHMRC-funded research.

It compares the output and impact of Australian health and medical research with the rest of the world by measuring the number of journal publications generated and the amount of times these were cited by other researchers.

“This report reinforces the strong international standing of Australia’s health and medical research sector, exceeding world benchmarks in output and impact,” said Professor Brendan Crabb, President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes, Australia’s medical research institute peak body.

“Of special note is that Australia’s medical research institutes outperform all other Australian research sectors, with a relative paper citation impact 40% above the Australian average and 65% above the world average.”

“The majority of medical research institute funds come from the NHMRC, demonstrating that medical research institutes and the NHMRC are a highly effective combination. Medical researchers understand they have a responsibility to spend Australian taxpayers’ dollars, and the investments of donors, wisely. This report shows that Australia’s medical research institutes are doing just that,” added Professor Crabb.

From 2001 to 2010, Australia’s health and medical research sector ranked sixth internationally in terms of citations per publication.

This new report shows that over the five-year period of 2005-2009:

• Australian health and medical publications had a relative citation impact 17% above the world average, with NHMRC-funded publications, in particular, being 60% above the world average
• The number of Australian health and medical research publications increased by 44% between 2002-2006 and 2005-2009, with Australia contributing 3.1% of total world biomedical publications from just 1.1% of global health research dollars
• Australia’s medical research institutes outperformed other research sectors and world benchmarks, with a relative citation impact 65% above the world average and 40% above Australia overall
• International collaborations increased between 2005 and 2009, with 44% of medical research papers having an international author in 2009 - this is important, because papers with an international author had an average citation impact almost double that of publications without an international author.

“The continuing support and implementation of a long-term plan to ensure a sustainable health and medical research sector in Australia will pay dividends for everyone - the government, health professionals, industry and all Australians,” said Professor Crabb.