Is the United States losing ground in science?
A global perspective on the world science system in 2005
Loet Leydesdorff and Caroline Wagner
Abstract
Based on the Science Citation Index–Expanded web-version, the USA is still by far the strongest nation in terms of scientific performance. Its relative decline in percentage share of publications is largely due to the emergence of China and other Asian nations. In terms of citations, the competitive advantage of the American “domestic market” is diminished, while the European Union (EU) is profiting more from the enlargement of the database over time than the US. However, the USA is still outperforming all other countries in terms of highly cited papers and citation/publication ratios, and it is more successful than the EU in coordinating its research efforts in strategic priority areas like nanotechnology. In this field, the People’s Republic of China (PRC) has become second largest in 2005 in both numbers of papers published and citations behind the USA.
Keywords: national, science, bibliometrics, indicators, nanotechnology
Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681
[EMAIL PROTECTED] ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/
The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society; The Challenge of Scientometrics
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