Research strength index to identify the performance of research universities: the case of Indonesia

Abstract

Purpose This paper aims to identify the strengths of the universities based on the research area which are prioritized by the Government of Indonesia in the National Medium Term Development Plan 2015–2019, in the research areas of food and agriculture; energy, new and renewable energy; health and medicine; transportation; telecommunication, information and communication; defense and security technologies and advanced materials. Design/methodology/approach The mapping of the research strength in Indonesian universities is performed by using data of the university research output in the Information System for Research and Community Service, Ministry of Research, Technology and Higher Education and categorized into seven categories, i.e. accredited national journals, international journals indexed by Scopus or others, Intellectual Property ownership, textbooks, prototypes and an appropriate technology. Based on the data obtained from Information System for Research and Community Service, there are 904 universities in Indonesia conducting research activities and generating 14,188 research outputs. Findings This paper analyzes 3 of the 9 National Research Priorities, namely, food, energy and health and medicine. The data show that there are 904 universities in Indonesia conducting research activities and producing 14,188 research results. The research strength index based on National Research Priorities shows that three universities have the highest cluster strength index. Gadjah Mada with an index value of 4.95 is the highest index in the food cluster. In the energy cluster of the Institut Teknologi Bandung with the highest index value of 0.63. Meanwhile, the Universitas Indonesia reached 2.06 as the highest index value in the health and medicine cluster. Originality/value Measurement of the strength of the study was conducted using data from research results from universities in 2016 which were recorded in the Information System for Research and Community Service. The University’s R&D strength is calculated from seven categories of research results: accredited national journals, international journals indexed by Scopus or others, intellectual property rights, textbooks, prototypes and appropriate technology products.