Analysis of publications resulting from the research project funding of various providers in the Czech Republic

The aim of the study is to analyse the publication results of research projects that received support from different providers between 2007 and 2018. There are a number of providers providing funding for research projects in the Czech Republic. We compared the publications resulting from the research projects of various national programmes between ourselves and with those resulting from the projects 7. Framework Programme of EU (FP7). The projects of providers distributing the largest volumes of project funds –
Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MEYS) and Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GACR) – generated the largest number of publications, as expected. However, the programmes supported by Technology Agency of the Czech Republic, which distributes
a comparable amount of funds as the GACR in recent years, produce a signifi cantly lower number of publications. This is due to the focus on applied research, where very often the production of different types of results than publications occurs.

We found signifi cant differences in the citation impact of publications produced under the various programmes. The publications funded by the FP7 had the highest impact, followed by publications supported by national programmes aimed at promoting international cooperation. Of the national providers, publications from projects supported by the MEYS had the highest citation impact, followed by publications from the projects of the GACR and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
The lowest citation had publications supported by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Defence. The programmes of providers, which had the highest proportion of international publications, also had the most cited publications. It can therefore be said that international cooperation increases the citation of publications. The high proportion of publications published in top-rated journals is probably one of the mechanisms by which high citations are achieved, as foreign co-authors often insist on publishing in the most important journals of the respective fi elds. Since the citation of publications is often used as an indicator of their quality, it can also be generalised that international cooperation improves the quality of publications. The programme support for international cooperation is therefore probably the fastest way to increase the quality and citation impact of publications.