While Australia continues to be a solid contributor to global research efforts, more must be done to ensure that we keep up the good work, according to a research report released by the country’s top scientist.

“It has often been said that we punch above our weight. While that may be true, it appears that our aspiration needs to be higher,’’ Chief Scientist Professor Ian Chubb said.

The analysis of citation rate (as an indicator of research quality) is contained in the latest occasional paper from the Office of the Chief Scientist.

“In terms of citation per paper, we do not out-perform the countries with an embedded scientific culture that we might aspire to be like  – the Western European democracies, Scandinavia or the United States and Canada,’’ Professor Chubb said.

A second supplement released with the occasional paper shows that the citation rates of 30 per cent of Australian papers are above the European average.

The supplement also shows that more than half the Australian papers are below world average.

Professor Chubb said Australia did perform better than its regional neighbours using the same measure – average citations per paper over a 15-year period.

While Australia outperforms the world standard for research quality in most fields using this measure, so do the countries with which we share scientific culture.

“We should compare ourselves with the best in the world. We should not compare ourselves with the rest of the world.’’ Professor Chubb said.

The full paper can be found here