Taiwan's Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council announced the results of "2009 ESI Taiwan Theses Tally" last week. NTU's number of theses published and the number of theses cited ranked No. 1 in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. In terms of global ranking, NTU's number of theses published ranked No.65th in the world, and the number of theses cited ranked No. 203rd in the world. Harvard University ranked No. 1 in the world in terms of number of theses published and number of theses cited. In China, the Zhejiang University has the highest number of theses published, with a global ranking of 96th. The Tsing-hua University of Beijing ranked No. 98th in the world in terms of number of theses published, and 336th in the world in terms of number of theses cited.

Comparing the various disciplines, NTU tops all other universities in Taiwan in terms of theses published and cited in the areas of chemistry, physics, clinical medicine, ecology, and geosciences.

The Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council said that the universities that made to the top of the survey were those which had the top 1% of theses cited from 1998 to 2008 in the ESI database. ESI collects SCI and SSCI theses which were published in natural sciences and social sciences, and the indicators include number of theses published, number of theses cited, and the average number of citation, etc.

Professor Mu-Hsung Huang of the Department of Library and Information Science points out that, in conducting academic evaluation for certain countries or institutes, ESI (essential science indicators) can provide fast and objective data for tracking academic performance over a long period, so the ESI survey data are often regarded as importance reference tools for evaluation agencies. The 2009 ESI Tally of Taiwan Theses was a research project of the Higher Education Evaluation and Accreditation Council, which compiled ESI tally of Taiwan theses for the third time in 2009, and collected all relevant data of the Taiwan theses in the ESI database from January 1st 1998 to December 31st 2008 to present the universities and subjects from Taiwan which made to the top 1% of the number of theses cited. By doing so, the council was able to understand the quality and quantity of the academic theses published in Taiwan, and to grasp Taiwan's performance in the international academia and the changing situations thereof.

The results of "2009 ESI Tally of Taiwan Theses " were published in the 19th issue of Evaluation Bimonthly. Website: http://epaper.heeact.edu.tw.