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Editorial
ScienceAsia 32 (2006): 101-106 |doi: 10.2306/scienceasia1513-1874.2006.32.101
Update on Thai Publications in ISI Databases
(1999-2005)
M.R. Jisnuson Svastia and Ruchareka Asavisanub
ABSTRACT: Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626) once said
“Knowledge is Power”. Bacon was a lawyer, philosopher,
and courtier. He entered Trinity College, Cambridge
University to study the sciences at the age of 12, six
years younger and nearly 400 years earlier than the
first author of this article. But that is not his claim to
fame. Bacon’s works established and popularized the
inductive method for scientific inquiry, whereby the
philosopher (scientist) uses inductive reasoning to
proceed from observation of natural phenomena to
axiom and then to law. Even 400 years later, most of us
would agree with Bacon’s statement about the
importance of knowledge in its many forms: knowledge
of how to do something, knowledge as it relates to
information, and most importantly the knowledge of
how to acquire knowledge. As teachers, we help
students to gain these various forms of knowledge.
Those of us who are administrators also come to realize
how important knowledge and information is for
formulating and implementing policies. Recently, one
of us assumed an administrative position at Mahidol
University, and wanted to obtain information about the
publications of Mahidol University in relation to other
universities, both for himself and for other
administrators. However, the research office at the
university only had information on the publications of
Mahidol University, but not of other universities. On
the other hand, we believe that comparative data are
important in helping an institution compare its status
and performance to others.
Detailed information on the international publications from Thailand between 1985-1994 was
first compiled by Ruenwongsa and Panijpan, and was
published in this journal1. More recent and extensive
studies on Thai publications between 1995-2003 were
carried by Sombatsompop and his group. Some of this
work was published, including studies of Thai academic
journals between 1996-20002 and evaluations of the
citation quality of international publications from
Thailand between 1998-20023. However, the bulk of
the group’s detailed data on international publications
from Thailand between 1995-2003 is less accessible,
since it is only found in a searchable database at a
website4. The website of the Technical Information
Access Center (TIAC)5 also contains annual summaries
of data on international publications from Thailand,
but the extent and depth of coverage is variable.
Information on publications is also available from
Foresight Projects carried out by Supot Hannongbua
and his team6, but these so far cover only certain fields,
and publications form just one part of the data collected.
Also, methodologies for some studies4,5 were not clear
to us.
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a Dean’s Office, Faculty of Graduate Studies, Mahidol University, Salaya, Nakorn Pathom 73170, Thailand.
b Center of Scientific Information Resources (CSIR) and Stang Mongkolsuk Library, Faculty of Science,
Mahidol University, Bangkok 10400, Thailand.
* Corresponding author, E-mail: scjsv@mahidol.ac.th
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