, 1 min read
Science papers per country
Andre points us to SciImago — a Web site to mine science journals. Using their aggregates per country and some data from Wikipedia, I made up a table on number of science papers produced per country going back to 1996.
Country |Science papers (1996-2006) |Population (current) |Papers per capita | -------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------| US |3,437,213 |303,202,683 |0.011 | Japan |983,020 |127,718,000 |0.0077 | UK |962,640 |60,587,300 |0.015 | Germany |888,287 |82,251,000 |0.010 | China |758,042 |1,323,128,240 |0.00057 | France |640,163 |64,102,140 |0.010 | Canada |473,763 |33,148,682 |0.014 | Italy |461,292 |59,206,382 |0.0077 | Spain |330,399 |45,116,894 |0.0073 | India |286,109 |1,131,043,000 |0.00025 | Sweden |194,921 |9,174,082 |0.021 | Switzerland |188,134 |7,508,700 |0.025 | Israel |120,257 |7,222,222 |0.0166 | Norway |70,314 |4,738,085 |0.015 |
What is fascinating is that the picture changes dramatically if you just look at the most recent year (2006):
Country |Science papers (2006) |Population (current) |Papers per capita | -------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------|-------------------------| US |340,268 |303,202,683 |0.0011 | China |166,205 |1,323,128,240 |0.000125 | UK |107,528 |60,587,300 |0.0018 | Japan |97,073 |127,718,000 |0.00076 | Germany |95,310 |82,251,000 |0.0012 | France |67,652 |64,102,140 |0.0011 | Canada |56,571 |33,148,682 |0.0017 | Italy |54,298 |59,206,382 |0.0009 | Spain |41,914 |45,116,894 |0.0009 | India |38,140 |1,131,043,000 |tiny | Switzerland |22,966 |7,508,700 |0.003 | Sweden |20,926 |9,174,082 |0.002 | Israel |13,049 |7,222,222 |0.0018 | Norway |8,670 |4,738,085 |0.0018 |
These numbers suggest some significant changes:
- The US is still leading in the number of papers produced, but it no longer dominates. And it may not lead for many more decades if China keeps this up.
- Canada, Switzerland, Norway, Spain and Italy are improving their per capita numbers.
- Switzerland has a surprisingly high number of papers per capita.
- Japan has a surprisingly low number of papers per capita.