The Ibero-American Ranking SIR 2010 is headed by the University of São Paulo, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, the University of Campinas (Brazil), the University of Barcelona, the Complutense University of Madrid, São Paulo State University, the Federal University of Río de Janeiro, the Autonomous University of Barcelona, the University of Valencia and the Autonomous University of Madrid.
Spain and Brazil are by some distance the most prolific generators of scientific knowledge among the Ibero-American countries and are home to the majority of universities with the highest levels of research production. In fact, the report shows that Spain leads the field in scientific production, with 43 of the top 100 places filled by Spanish universities. Brazil is the second research power in the Ibero-American area, with 27 universities in the top 100.
The report provides detailed profiles based on publication and citation data for the 607 institutions considered. The figures are taken from Elsevier's Scopus database, which monitors the content of more than 20,000 scientific journals.
Spanish universities - and, to a lesser extent, their Portuguese counterparts - show comparatively high values for research quality and the capacity to publish in prestigious journals.
Scores are based on two indicators: "average scientific quality" (calidad científica promedio, CCP), which records the total number of citations of the institution's published articles in specific subject areas, publication types and periods; and Q1, which records the total number of articles published by an institution in journals listed in the first quartile of the SCImago Journal and Country Rank (SJR). Brazil, ranked second for scientific production behind Spain, only has five institutions with a CCP score above the international average.
According to the report, greater internationalization of research activity increases the visibility and scientific impact of higher education institutions. As such, the institutions in the ranking with the highest levels of scientific impact - based on indicators of publication and citation in quality journals - are those whose research has the greatest international dimension. This is particularly true of Spain and Portugal, where research activity is characterized by high levels of international collaboration and impact. In contrast, most Latin-American universities suffer from a lack of international visibility and score below the international average for citation in high impact factor journals.
SCImago is a research group
devoted to scientific evaluation through the analysis, visualization and evaluation of the information contained in large scientific databases, and has members in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the University of Granada, the University of Alcalá de Henares, the University Carlos III de Madrid, the University of Extremadura, the University of Oporto (Portugal), the National University of La Plata (Argentina) and the Pontifical Catholic University of Valparaíso (Chile).
Underlining its importance as a research institution, the UB was also the highest-placed Spanish university in the ranking published by SCImago in 2006, which analysed the research activity of universities and research centres in the nine Ibero-American countries with the highest figures for scientific production over the period 1990-2004 (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Mexico, Portugal, Spain and Venezuela). The UB was also ranked ahead of other Spanish universities in the SCImago Institutions Rankings (SIR) 2009 World Report, which analyses the output of more than 2,000 of the best research institutions and organizations worldwide.
