UdL publishes the highest percentage of research articles in the most prestigious journals after UPF

The University of Lleida occupies the second place in Catalonia regarding the percentage of quality publications in the area of biomedical research, as reflected in the data that were recently published in the Bibliometric Characterization Study of scientific production in Catalonia: 1996-2006 (AGAUR-PRBB Report). UdL stands over more productive Catalan universities like UB and UAB and is only outperformed by Pompeu Fabra University.

During the period 2002-2006, almost 57% of the articles in Biomedicine published by the research groups in the Faculty of Medicine at UdL - currently integrated into the Lleida Biomedical Research Institute (IRB Lleida) - were published in internationally renowned scientific journals of the highest impact factor, such as Science, Nature, Journal of Biological Chemistry, Physiological Review, Journal of Neuroscience, Journal of Clinical Oncology and Diabetes among others. This percentage places UdL second in Catalonia and outperforms the average of Catalan universities sector (51.93) in 10 points, and that of Spanish universities (46.84) in 5 points.

In spite of its difference in size with other Catalan universities, research activities at UdL stand among the best as regards quality

Albert Sorribas, Director of the Department of Basic Medical Sciences, stated that "in spite of its difference in size with other Catalan universities, research activities at UdL stand among the best as regards quality. Moreover, if that difference is considered in relation to investment in this area, which has been historically deficient at UdL with respect to other universities, the achieved position achieved is still more meritorious".

Another aspect worth mentioning is UdL’s third place in the number of citations of articles written by members of the staff at UdL in other papers published by researchers from all over the world. With an average of 6 citations per article, UdL is the third Catalan university with the highest number of citations in Biomedicine during the period 2002-2006, after Pompeu Fabra University (12.37) and the University of Barcelona (7.02).

In relation to the internationalisation of research groups, Sorribas explained that UdL must face a challenge in that matter, since only 25% of publications at UdL are written in collaboration with foreign groups. In spite of this, he declared that "this makes the results achieved more valuable, since they are the outcome of work made by our own groups, unlike in other universities". Sorribas concluded that if this factor continues to improve, "UdL might stand in first place in all indexes. In this sense, IRB Lleida should be the catalyser to this last step ahead into achieving the highest quality as regards biomedical research in Lleida".