Malta's science base and accession into the European Union: before and after Online publication date: Tue, 05-Jan-2016
by G. Steven McMillan; Frank Bezzina; Debra L. Casey
International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development (IJIRD), Vol. 6, No. 4, 2015
Abstract: Malta joined the European Union (EU) on 1 May 2004. Prior to joining the EU, Malta's research and innovation (R&I) base was rather limited to tourism and aquaculture issues. Since its accession, Malta believes that it has made substantial strides in its research efforts, yet many of the traditional EU measures are unclear as to its progress. To attempt to address this discrepancy, and since no previous research has attempted to directly measure Malta's progress in its R&I outcomes, we employ bibliometric analyses, focusing on scientific publications, to uncover that Malta has indeed made progress in its scientific efforts. Comparing 573 articles in the ten years prior to accession to 2,190 articles in the ten years hence, we find that Malta has extended its international co-authorships, expanded its research front, and increased its highly cited articles. While this is clearly impressive, we also highlight some shortcomings in how far Malta has come.
Existing subscribers:
Go to Inderscience Online Journals to access the Full Text of this article.
If you are not a subscriber and you just want to read the full contents of this article, buy online access here.Complimentary Subscribers, Editors or Members of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Innovation and Regional Development (IJIRD):
Login with your Inderscience username and password:
Want to subscribe?
A subscription gives you complete access to all articles in the current issue, as well as to all articles in the previous three years (where applicable). See our Orders page to subscribe.
If you still need assistance, please email subs@inderscience.com
Our Blog 
Follow us on Twitter 
Visit us on Facebook