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What We Research - Scientific Production

In line with its role as a Research University, U.Porto’s research ecosystem contributes to approximately one quarter of the scientific production in Portugal.

Between 2016 and 2020, according to data published in the Scientific Production of the University of Porto indexed in the Web of Science 2016-2020 report (available in Portuguese), almost a quarter (23,5%) of the Portuguese scientific articles were published in collaboration with the research ecosystem of the U.Porto.

The increase in U.Porto’s scientific production over the last few years is evident, as is the growth in the number of citable documents considered Highly Cited Papers in their respective academic fields. In the period between 2016–2020, U.Porto published 25 249 documents in a range of fields (an increase of 1 544 compared with 2015–2019) – 20 635 of which are citable – indexed in the Web of Science (WoS), 24% of the national total.

Most of U.Porto’s scientific production is in the fields of Medical and Health Science (representing 41% of all types of documents and 32% of citable documents), followed by the Exact and Natural Sciences (representing 35% and 39%, respectively) and Engineering Science and Technology (16% and 18%) (data from Web of Science, 2016-2020).

The research produced by the U.Porto is also an important focus of cooperation with other entities in the region, the country and the world - 57,3% of scientific production (citable documents) at the U.Porto is developed in partnership with institutions from all over the world.

The affirmation of the U. Porto as the main producer of science in Portugal is also reflected in the position that the University has been assuming in the main international rankings, namely in the main scientific barometer of Higher Education, the Leiden Ranking, and in the latest editions of the prestigious National Taiwan University (NTU) Ranking and Shanghai Ranking's Global Ranking of Academic Subjects.

The effort to build the capacity of U.Porto in terms of infrastructures and reinforcement of human resources has also been fundamental to ensure the competitiveness of our scientific production and the quality of our research.