Polish science in international rankings

Abstract

This paper reviews international rankings of scientific achievements and the standings that Polish science and academic institutions occupy. A survey of bibliometric methods and measures (publications, citations, patents, indices etc.) is presented. Next, the results of several recent rankings are given. Polish science taken as a whole ranks 20 in the world (8 in the European Union) according to the number of publications in the Thomson/Reuters data base. The exact sciences, especially physics, rank better. The criteria used to classify universities are more questionable and subject to criticism from the experts. Polish universities are classified far beyond the leading world institutions, but some departments compete successfully with their European and world counterparts.