The objective of this work is to analyze Israeli R&D output depicted in scientific publications with an international comparison. Using bibliometric indices research output was evaluated both quantitatively (number of publications) and qualitatively (average citations per publication) and according to field priority (rate of field publications out of total scientific publications).
The number of Israeli scientific publications was slightly changed during last years: the number of Israeli publications was higher in 2011 than in 2010, but less than the highest number of Israeli publications, in 2008. The relative contribution of Israel to world publications is going down for several years: states ranking by number of publications show decline in Israel ranking in both total number of publications and in number per person.
Since mid-1990 the quality of Israeli publications (average citations per publication) is higher than world average, and since 2000 also higher than OECD states average. During last periods the quality of Israeli publications is growing, but less than for other states. For the time period of 2007-2011 Israel was ranked 15 in states ranking by quality of publications while in 2001-2005 Israel was ranked 12 in this indices.
