REVIEW ARTICLE Dental Pedagogy and Research Reflections on a decade of research by ASEAN dental faculties: analysis of publications from ISI-WOS databases from 2000 to 2009 Stitaya Sirisinha 1,2 , Sittichai Koontongkaew 2 , Prathip Phantumvanit 2 & Ruchareka Wittayawuttikul 3 1 Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand 2 Oral Biology Unit, Faculty of Dentistry, Thammasat University, Pathumtani, Thailand 3 Center of Scientific Information, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand Introduction This communication represents an in-depth analysis and updating version of the data that were presented at the 20th South-East Asia Association for Dental Education (SEAADE) Annual Scientific Meeting held in Chiang Mai, Thailand on November 23–24, 2009. The theme of the meeting was ‘‘ASEAN Dental Education: Oral Health for All.’’ Because the promotion of research is one of the important functions of the SEAADE, the presentation entitled ‘‘Dental Research Development in ASEAN’’ received considerable attention. The present communica- tion represents the analyses of publications in the Insti- tute of Scientific Information Web of Science (ISI-WOS) databases from 2000 to 2009. The requirement for research in universities has been rapidly gaining momentum, so it is important to develop an understanding of the baseline research productivity in a region, such as the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), so that this can be used to develop future policy. Research and its output now represent important criteria that are used to rank universities, and therefore, practically every university, regardless of its size, fields of specialty, or sector (public/private), is thriving to upgrade its research performance and encourages its staff to publish their research in high-impact, peer-reviewed, international journals. However, available data from the databases showed that writing and publishing by scientists and technologists who are members of the ASEAN fall short compared to their international counterparts in both quality and quantity. For instance, in 2005, publica- tions by all ASEAN countries combined made up approx- imately only 1% of the total publications, although the population of ASEAN was almost 10% of the world Keywords Asian university ranking, Association of South-East Asian Nations, dental research, Institute of Scientific Information Web of Science database, research publication. Correspondence Prof. Stitaya Sirisinha, Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Science, Mahidol University, Rama 6 Road, Bangkok 10400, Thailand. Tel: +66 2201 5675 Fax: +66 2644 5411 Email: scssr@mahidol.ac.th Received 28 June 2010; accepted 28 November 2010. doi: 10.1111/j.2041-1626.2011.00048.x Abstract This communication analyzed research publications in dentistry in the Institute of Scientific Information Web of Science databases of 10 dental faculties in the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) from 2000 to 2009. The term used for the ‘‘all-document types’’ search was ‘‘Faculty of Dentistry/ College of Dentistry.’’ Abstracts presented at regional meetings were also included in the analysis. The Times Higher Education System QS World University Rankings showed that universities in the region fare poorly in world university rankings. Only the National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University appeared in the top 100 in 2009; 19 universities in the region, including Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thai- land, appeared in the top 500. Data from the databases showed that research publications by dental institutes in the region fall short of their Asian counter- parts. Singapore and Thailand are the most active in dental research of the ASEAN countries. Journal of Investigative and Clinical Dentistry (2011), 2, 72–80 72 ª 2011 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd