S&E Publications
S&E Article Output Volume
Researchers normally disseminate and validate their results by publishing articles in peer-reviewed journals. Authorship of such articles is crucial for career advancement in most fields. The number of articles attributed to countries in different fields of science provides information about the size and scope of a country's research portfolio and its research priorities relative to other countries.[15]
- The number of Asian-authored S&E articles, including those from Japan, grew from 51,000 in 1988 to 130,000 in 2003, approaching the EU's 1988 output level of 135,000. The EU output rose quite steadily during this period and has exceeded that of the United States since 1998. The number of U.S. articles has been essentially flat since 1992, with a modest increase in 2003 (figure 24).
- Japan and China accounted for about equal shares of the rise in Asia's article output from 1988 to 2003, adding 25,600 and 24,600 articles, respectively, for a combined 63% of total growth over the period.
- South Korea and Taiwan together accounted for another 20,100 articles. The number of articles from India grew much less, from 8,900 to 12,800 (table 9).
- From 1988 to 2003, Asia's share of the world total S&E articles rose from 11% to 19%. The EU share rose from 29% in 1988 to 33% in 1997, after which it declined slightly. The U.S. share fell over the period from 38% to 30% (figure 25).
- Within Asia, although Japan's article output increased between 1988 and 2003, its share of total output in Asia declined, from 67% in 1988 to 46% in 2003. China's share more than doubled, reaching 22% in 2003, and South Korea's share went from 2% to 11%. India's share fell from 17% to 10% (figure 26).
Figure 24 Source Data: Excel file
Table 9 Source Data: Excel file
Figure 25 Source Data: Excel file
Figure 26 Source Data: Excel file
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S&E Article Portfolio
A country's S&E article portfolio reflects the relative emphasis placed on different fields (physical sciences, engineering/technology, life sciences, and social/behavioral sciences). It provides a nearly real-time archive of completed research activities.[16]
- The S&E article portfolio of Asia is more concentrated in the physical sciences and engineering/technology than are the portfolios of the EU and United States. In 2003, these fields accounted for 60% of Asian-authored articles, compared with 40% of EU articles and 30% of U.S. articles. Compared with Asia, both the EU and the United States have greater emphasis on life sciences (figure 27).
- Asia not only has a relatively smaller life sciences portfolio than the EU and the United States but also a smaller proportion of articles in the social/behavioral science fields.
- Since 1988, Asia's overall portfolio has shifted somewhat further toward engineering and the physical sciences, with similar but smaller shifts for the EU. Both patterns contrast with the stable U.S. portfolio composition (table 10).
- Within Asia, the S&E portfolio is marked by several distinct patterns: relative stability in India, Japan, and Taiwan; sharply declining life sciences proportions in China and Singapore because of growth in the physical sciences and engineering; and expanding life sciences in South Korea (figure 28).
Figure 27 Source Data: Excel file
Table 10 Source Data: Excel file
Figure 28 Source Data: Excel file
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Scientific Collaboration
Research collaboration has risen steeply in the past two decades, both within countries and across national borders. The collaborative ties revealed by article (institutional) coauthorships provide insight into increasingly shared knowledge production processes, often at a global level.[17]
- Overall research collaboration, as indicated by the share of articles that are coauthored either domestically or internationally, has grown rapidly in Asia, the EU, and the United States. These collaborative articles now constitute more than 60% of all research articles.
- International research collaboration[18] as measured by coauthorship has generally increased faster than domestic collaboration.[19] Around 10% of publications by Asian and U.S. researchers were internationally coauthored in 1988; by 2003, the figure was 22% for Asia and 25% for the United States. International coauthorship was higher in the EU, rising from 13% in 1988 to 27% in 2003, which does not reflect the EU's successful efforts to stimulate collaboration within the Union (figure 29).
- India, Japan, and Taiwan had the lowest rates of international collaboration in Asia, about 21%–22% each in 2003. Several Asian countries with less fully developed S&T capacity (Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand) had rates of international collaboration exceeding 50% (table 11).
- In Asia,[20] the strongest growth is in articles involving coauthorships within Asia (almost 18% average annual growth from 1988–2003), suggesting growing intraregional collaboration. Growth in collaboration with researchers outside the region (11.3% annually) was also strong (figure 30).
- Asian patterns of international collaboration have undergone large shifts in terms of the locations of foreign researchers with whom Asian researchers collaborate. From 1988 to 2003, the U.S. share of foreign participation in collaborative research declined substantially in all Asian economies except Singapore and Thailand, the intraregional share generally rose, and the EU share fell in most but not all Asian economies (table 12).
Figure 29 Source Data: Excel file
Table 11 Source Data: Excel file
Figure 30 Source Data: Excel file
Table 12 Source Data: Excel file
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Citations of S&E Articles
Citations of S&E literature, aggregated by country/region of authorship, provide an indication of the relative prominence in world science of a given location's S&E literature.[21]
- Citation trends for articles authored in Asia, the EU, and the United States generally mirrored the trends in article production for these locations. Asia's citation volume more than doubled between 1992 and 2003 but continued to lag behind both the EU and the United States. Citations to the EU literature nearly doubled during the same period, and U.S. citations rose by one-third but flattened between 1999 and 2002 (figure 31).
- Japan accounted for the overwhelming majority of Asian citations: 319,000 in 2003. However, at 64%, Japan's share of Asian citations was down from 84% in 1992, as citations rose for articles from East Asian economies, increasing from 5% to 13% for China (including Hong Kong), 1% to 8% for South Korea, and 2% to 6% for Taiwan (figure 32).
- Adjusted for article output, the relative volume of citations received by all Asian articles was fairly steady from 1992 to 2003, suggesting no major change in the prominence of overall Asian scientific output. However, China, India, Singapore, and South Korea had rising, though still low, ratios. The United States ratio held steady at a high level, while the EU ratio rose somewhat during the period (table 13).
- On average, Asian articles get cited with less frequency than would be expected based on article volume (ratio of 0.7 in 2003, 0.4 with in-country citations excluded); EU articles at about the expected frequency (1.0, 0.7 with in-country citations excluded), and U.S. articles more often than would be expected based on article volume (1.4, or 1.0 without in-country citations).
Figure 31 Source Data: Excel file
Figure 32 Source Data: Excel file
Table 13 Source Data: Excel file
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