The number of papers published by full-time faculty at domestic four-year universities has decreased for two consecutive years, indicating a halt in the quantitative growth of papers, while a shift towards strengthening qualitative research centered on international academic journals has been observed.
According to the '2024 University Research Activity Status Survey Analysis Report' released by the Korea Research Foundation on the 19th, the total number of papers published by full-time faculty at domestic four-year universities last year was 65,388, a 2.2% decrease compared to the previous year. Following a 4% decrease compared to the previous year in 2022, the number of paper publications has been continuously declining. The Korea Research Foundation noted, "The recent quantitative growth in papers has ceased."
This may be due to a decrease in the number of full-time faculty. The number of full-time faculty at four-year universities has steadily decreased from 73,948 in 2021 and 73,250 in 2022 to 72,543 last year. Additionally, the number of papers per full-time faculty member decreased from 0.94 in 2021 to 0.9 last year.
In contrast, the proportion of papers published in international professional journals increased from 43.7% in 2019 to 46.6% last year, marking a 2.9 percentage point increase. Meanwhile, the proportion of papers published in domestic professional journals decreased from 54% to 52.1% during the same period. This suggests that researchers are focusing more on journals with higher international influence rather than on quantitative expansion.
In the past five years, the number of international professional papers per faculty member at each university was highest at POSTECH, with 1.06 papers per faculty member, followed by Sungkyunkwan University at 1.05, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) at 1.05, and Yeungnam University at 0.97.