This report presents an assessment of the JRC's scientific and technical research activities in the period 2007-2015, focusing on research outputs and citation impact. It complements a 2014 report drafted by Thomson Reuters. The aim of the report is to inform a panel of independent experts, who will carry out an implementation review of the JRC half way the EU Framework Programme for Research and Innovation, Horizon 2020. The report provides information on the number of JRC research publications and the scientific impact of those publications, based on data and metrics derived from Thomson Reuter's InCites platform and the Web of Science database. The total number of JRC publications during the period under study was 6 970. Of these publications, 1 362 ranked in the world's top 10 % highly cited publications as categorised per scientific field, which means a 20 % ratio of highly cited papers. This is almost twice the world-average performance. A notable increase in the number of highly cited publications gives an indication of an improved JRC performance. The JRC's share of top 1 % highly cited publication per field is more than three times the world average in recent years. A considerable number of JRC publications thus have a major impact in the scientific literature. The high score on this metric may be related to the regulatory science role of the JRC. The five fields of science in which the JRC produces most publications are: Environmental Sciences, Nuclear Science & Technology, Material Science, Analytical Chemistry, and Meteorology & Atmospheric Science. The field-normalised citation impact (FNCI) is 65 % above the average world level. For some fields, high productivity and impact overlap. These areas of excellence include: Ecology, Energy & Fuels, Environmental Studies, Environmental Sciences, Toxicology, Applied Physics and Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences. There are also some fields of large JRC publication productivity with relatively low citation impact. Very few of those fields have an FNCI score below world average. Around 81 % of the JRC's highly cited publications are the result of international co-operation. For 39 % of the highly cited publications, a JRC researcher is the corresponding author. This indicates that, to a significant extent, the highly cited publications are the result of JRC research activities. In terms of the shares of highly cited publications, the JRC performs at a similar level as top level 'basic science organisations' such as leading research universities and public research centres. The same can be said for the FNCI metric, where the JRC outperforms most of its comparator organisations in fields of major research activity like Environmental Sciences and in Geosciences. As for JRC's outreach to industry, the share of JRC research publications that are co-produced with private-sector partners (business enterprises and industry) may provide some indication of the contribution to innovations and future socioeconomic impacts. With 3.5 % of its peer-reviewed scientific articles published together with private sector partners, the JRC has a percentage score on par with EPA and NIST in the US or the CEA in France. While the score is lower than that of typical research and technology organisations (RTOs), such as Fraunhofer (DE), TNO (NL) and VTT (SF) for which working with industry is a core part of their mission, it is significantly higher than for most of the academic science organisations, such as Oxford University and the Max Planck Society.
