Recognizing Malaysia’s research excellence

Clarivate Analytics and Malaysia’s Ministry of Education (MOE) produced a joint report in 2018 to showcase Malaysia’s performance in research and innovation from 2013 to 2017. This report was compiled using grants and researcher information from Jabatan Pendidikan Tinggi (Department of Higher Education, MOE) combined with data points from the Web of Science™, Derwent World Patents Index and other sources of Clarivate data. Malaysia’s publishing output increased by a significant percentage of 30% in 2017 compared to 2013. This growth rate is 1.6 times the average growth or approximately 18% for the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

“Malaysia’s publishing output increased by a significant percentage of 30% in 2017 compared to 2013.”

Malaysia’s number of Highly Cited Papers™, defined by Clarivate Analytics Essential Science Indicators™ as ranking within the top 1% most-cited papers for their subject category and year of publication, also jumped by 80% in the same period, from 89 to 161. This is a positive reflection of the country’s research quality.

To celebrate the country’s rising presence and impact in the world of scholarly research, Malaysia’s MOE, in partnership with Clarivate Analytics, presented the fourth annual Malaysia Research Star Awards to a select group of researchers.  As with last year’s honorees, these 2018 Research Stars have already shown significant promise in publishing work that has gained influence with their worldwide peers.

The final eight awardees for 2018 were selected by a special steering committee. This year’s Malaysia’s Research Star Awards are presented in four categories:

Frontier Researcher: Awardees (3)

  • Dr. Chai Siang Piao, Monash University Malaysia
  • Dr. Zainal Salam, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Ong Hwai Chyuan, Universiti Malaya

Hot Review Paper: Awardee (1)

  • Dato’ IR Dr. Abdul Wahab Mohammad, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Research and Innovation Excellence: Awardees (2)

a. Research University (RU)
Universiti Putra Malaysia
b. Non-Research University (Non-RU)
Universiti Teknologi Petronas

Top Peer Reviewer: Awardees (2)

a. Physical Sciences
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cheng Chin Kui, Universiti Malaysia Pahang
b. Social Sciences
Prof. Dr. Ooi Keng Boon, UCSI University

As with previous awards from 2015 through 2017, the data used for Malaysia’s Research Star Award 2018 is based on citations to their published research papers in quality international journals as indexed in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science, the world’s most trusted and largest publisher-neutral source of multidisciplinary citation databases for research discovery and citation analytics. The Malaysia’s Research Star Award presentation aims to recognize and encourage Malaysian researchers to continue their groundbreaking research in their respective fields and advance global science.

“As with previous awards from 2015 through 2017, the data used for Malaysia’s Research Star Award 2018 is based on citations to their published research papers in quality international journals as indexed in Clarivate Analytics Web of Science.”

The data used for Malaysia’s Research Star Award 2018 is based on the Highly Cited Papers extracted from the Essential Science Indicators for the years 2013 to 2017. The Essential Science Indicators database reveals emerging trends in research as well as influential individuals, institutions, papers, journals, and countries in any main subject area. The Essential Science Indicators lists Highly Cited Papers, which, as noted above, constitute the top 1% of papers worldwide in each of 22 broad fields and respective year of publication. The lists are updated every two months to reflect their current citation counts and also include new papers that enter the top percentile. Only reprint authors who are Malaysians are considered for this award. The reprint author is the main contact person for the paper and is usually the principal investigator leading the study.

Two new award categories in 2018

The Research and Innovation Excellence Award and the Top Peer Reviewer Award (using proprietary Publons™ data from Clarivate Analytics) are new categories introduced this year. The awardees span a variety of research disciplines such as engineering, agricultural sciences, materials science, chemistry, social sciences and environment/ecology.

The awardees for the Research and Innovation Excellence Award are recognized for their excellence in applied research that has commercial potential based on their patents filed. There are two sub-categories: Research University and Non-Research University. Top peer reviewers are recognized for their expertise in reviewing research manuscripts in various research areas. This represents their scholarly impact and expertise that goes beyond academic publications.

Highly Cited Researchers 2017

At the awards ceremony, we took the opportunity to also honor the globally recognized Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers 2017 from Malaysian institutions. The full methodology for this global recognition can be found here. In 2016, six Highly Cited Malaysian Researchers were recognized. In 2017, this was increased to eight.  This is another indication of Malaysia’s growing research in recent years.

The 2017 Highly Cited Researchers™ from Malaysian institutions were:

  1. Prof. Ir. Dr. Siti Kartom Kamarudin, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  2. Prof. Dato’ Ir. Dr. Wan Ramli Wan Daud, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
  3. Prof. Dr. Abdul Latif Ahmad, Universiti Sains Malaysia
  4. Prof. Dr. Bassim H. Hameed, Universiti Sains Malaysia
  5. Prof. Dr. Abd Karim Alias, Universiti Sains Malaysia
  6. Professor Ir. Dr. Masjuki Bin Haji Hassan, Universiti Malaya
  7. Associate Prof. Dr. Md. Abul Kalam, Universiti Malaya
  8. Prof. Dr. T.M Indra Mahlia, Universiti Malaya

The report “Research and Innovation Performance of Malaysian Universities 2013 – 2017” is now available.

Click here to download the report, or read the press release.