THE PUBLICATION OUTPUT AND IMPACT OF ACADEMIC CHEMISTRY RESEARCH IN THE NETHERLANDS DURING THE 1980S - BIBLIOMETRIC ANALYSES AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

This paper presents a bibliometric assessment of the output and impact of the research activities in the field of chemistry at universities in the Netherlands during the period 1980-1991, It analyses the positi on of The Netherlands Foundation for Chemical Research (SON), which is a subsidiary of the Netherlands research council NWO, The methodology applied in the study represents a synthesis of 'classical' macro indi cator studies on the one hand, and bibliometric analyses of research g roups and subfields at the micro- or meso-level on the other. We found that academic chemical research in the Netherlands has gained a high impact compared with a world average, and that the chemists tend to pu blish in high impact journals as well. The highest impact is achieved by papers that were written in collaboration with scientists from grou ps outside the Netherlands, indicating that the Dutch chemists play an important role in international scientific networks. There is a signi ficant correlation between a group's bibliometric impact and the finan cial support obtained from SON. We discuss several aspects of this cor relation in more detail, and draw conclusions with respect to the usef ulness of bibliometric analyses and implications for research policy.