According to the latest Evaluation Bimonthly, a journal published by the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council of Taiwan, TKU is officially in the ranking system of ESI (Essential Science Indicators) again with other 38 universities in Taiwan. In the indicator of the publication of research papers, TKU is ranked as the 16th among universities in Taiwan, the same as last year, and as No. 280 in Asia ranking, and No. 1012 in the world ranking, a four notches of improvement. The publication of TKU research papers in engineering and chemistry is also once again in the ranking system of ESI. The ranking of engineering area is No. 365 (moved from No. 375), while the ranking of chemistry dropped a little. Dr. Chen Kan-nan, Vice President for Academic Affairs, indicates that although our ranking is improved as a whole, we could discover from the survey that the ranking of other schools is also improved, while some even surpassed us.

ESI (Essential Science Indicators) is a resource that collects data on the top 1% of academic institutions worldwide based on their journal article publication counts and citation frequency. Our Citations Per Paper is raised from 3.94 times last year to 4.39 times this year, while the average amount of papers per teacher is increased from 3.68 to 3.91. As for the indicator of Highly Cited Papers, which shows the quality, importance, and the international influence of the papers, is from 5 to 6. Based on this ranking, the Citation Indicator of TKU research papers in engineering is ranked No. 507 (moved from No. 532), while in Asia ranking, the Citation Indicator is ranked No. 124, and the Publication Indicator No. 112. As for the chemistry field, the Publication Indicator is ranked No. 622 (dropped from No. 610), and Citation Indicator is ranked No. 866, dropped 27 notches. In Asia ranking, Publication Indicator is ranked No. 183, while Citation No.222.

According to the statistics provided by Chueh-sheng Memorial Library, the publication of TKU research papers per teacher is raised from 0.7 in 2007 to 0.85 this year. However, Dr. Chen points out that there is still space for improvement in the amount and quality of the research papers. He indicats that the school authority would reorganize the key projects and integrate research as well as raise incentive payments for teachers to offer a better environment for research. “As long as one teacher does not do research and contribute his or her papers, our ranking will go down in the end,” said Dr. Chen. He encourages teachers to take research as their basic duties because the performance of each teacher would influence the overall result of evaluation. “I hoped that next year, not only our ranking will be improved, but also more fields can be included in the ranking, so that TKU’s academic reputation can be promoted,” Dr. Chen said. (Shu-chun Yen)