A Bibliometrics Analysis of Canadian Electrical and Computer Engineering Institutions (1996-2006) Based on IEEE Journal Publications

This paper presents a bibliometric assessment of Canadian institutions in the discipline of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) from 1996 to 2006. The paper is a first step in identifying the top institutions over a 10-year period in Canada. The rankings are calculated using three metrics: (1) simple count of papers, (2) journal impact factors, and (3) journal impact factor of each institution normalized by its faculty size. The venues/journals considered are 71 flagship IEEE Transaction journals in different areas of ECE which are perceived as the most prestigious venues in the discipline. Using the three metrics, the top-ranked institutions are identified as: the University of Waterloo (by two metrics), and Queen’s University’s (by one metric). Our study also reveals other interesting results, such as: (1) Researchers from the universities of Waterloo and Toronto, combined, authored about a third of all the Canadian papers published in the IEEE Transaction journals during the time period under study (691 of 2,540 papers). (2) Canadian provinces have different levels of ECE research productivity and efficiency, and (3) ECE ranking of the Canadian institutions has similarities and differences versus a recently-published software engineering ranking of the same institutions. While this study is in the context of Canadian ECE institutions, our approach can be easily adapted to rank the institutions of any other nation and/or in any other discipline.