Evaluation of the quality of scientific performance of the selected countries of Southeast Europe

Scientific productivity data (number of publications and h-indices), collected from the Web of Science (WoS) database for the period 2005-2010 for 13 countries of Southeast Europe (including Austria as the reference country) and for the 251 WoS categories were grouped, during extraction of data, into 41 fields of science (FoS) according to Frascati manual classification (OECD in Revised field of science and technology (FoS) classification in the Frascati manual, pp. 1-12, 2007). The Scientific Performance QuaLity (SPQL) level has been defined and calculated for the 13 studied countries and for all FoS based on the established best fit of the linear dependence between P (1/alpha) and h-index. From these data the SPQL levels of the six major fields and overall country levels have been generated in a way which makes them dependent not on the quantity of scientific publications output, but on its quality thus making them suitable for constructing conceivable science policies. Nevertheless, general observed trend shows growth of the quality of scientific performance (SPQL) with scientific production output, but there are evident exceptions from such a tendency in both positive and negative directions. The highest quality levels of the reached scientific performance have been identified for the 41 FoSs (subfields) and 6 major FoS by the countries concerned