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 Svasti^a and Ruchareka Asavisanu^b

 
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