The analysis, titled “Portuguese Scientific Output, 2024-2023: Public Higher Education Institutions,” was published by the Directorate-General for Statistics in Education and Science (DGEEC). It highlights the proportion of publications within the top 10% most cited worldwide as a key measure of impact.

Iscte stands out with 13.3%, a 22% increase from 2014-2018. It is followed by the University of the Algarve at 12.9%, and the University of Lisbon at 12.7%. These figures demonstrate both research quality and international visibility. The data is based on Clarivate’s InCites platform, which uses the Web of Science Core Collection.

In citation impact, nearly all Portuguese universities exceed the global average of 1.00, except Universidade Aberta (0.80), Universidade de Évora (0,82), and Universidade da Madeira (0.99). The University of Lisbon leads with a score of 1.19, followed by the University of the Algarve and the University of Porto, both at 1.16.

Regarding journal quality, the universities of Aveiro (53.7%), Algarve (53.5%), and Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (52.4%) rank highest for publications in high-impact journals during 2019-2023.

In terms of volume, Lisbon (37,644), Porto (32,735), and Coimbra (20,292) produced the most publications, reflecting their size and research strength. Smaller universities showed strong growth: Madeira (44%), Évora (33%), and Istec (32%) increased output since 2014-2018.

Open access is widely adopted, with over half of publications freely available. The top performers include the University of the Azores (69.7%), Évora (67.7%), and the Algarve (64.6%).

International collaboration is also rising, led by Algarve (67.7%), Azores (67.6) and Madeira (64.7%). Conversely, universities with lower foreign collaboration, such as Universidade Aberta (52%), UTAD (46.7%), and Beira Interior (42.4%), focus more on domestic publications.