New Delhi: Global research output, as measured by peer-reviewed science and engineering (S&E) journal articles and conference papers, grew about 4% annually over the last 10 years. More interestingly, China and India have increased their share of the growing world output. China produced 5% of global output in 2000 and grew to 21% in 2018; India’s share rose from 2% to 5% during this period, as per the National Science Board’s Science & Engineering Indicators 2020 Report.
With 1,35,788 journal articles and conference papers, India’s share stands at 5% of the global output. Meanwhile, from 2008 to 2018, global output grew from 1.8 million to 2.6 million articles. In 2018, China (with a share of 21%) and the United States (with a share of 17%) were the largest producers. After, China and USA, India stands out at third place.
As a group, the EU countries (with a share of 24%) produced more S&E articles than China or the United States.
This report utilizes data from the Scopus database of global S&E publications and finds that worldwide S&E publication output continues to grow on average at nearly 4% per year.
Specialization in scientific fields differs among countries, with the United States, the EU, and Japan more specialized in health sciences and China and India more specialized in engineering, as measured by journal articles and conference papers.
The Countries Leading the World in Scientific Publications:
- China – 528,263 (21%)
- USA – 422,808 (17%)
- India –135,788 (5%)
- Germany – 104,396 (4%)
- Japan –98,793 (4%)
- UK –97,681 (3%)
- Italy -71,240 (3%)
Among the 15 largest publication producers, countries with higher than average growth rates include South Korea (4%), Brazil (5%), China (8%), Russia (10%), India (11%), and Iran (11%).
In terms of the absolute number of publications, researchers in China and the United States produced the most S&E publications, producing 528,263 (21%) and 422,808 (17%) articles, respectively, of the 2.6 million world 2018 total . The next closest countries by research publication count were India (135,788), Germany (104,396), Japan (98,793), and the UK (97,681).
Nine other countries complete the list of the largest 15 countries by output: Russia, Italy, South Korea, France, Brazil, Canada, Spain, Australia, and Iran. Together, these 15 countries produced just over 75% of the world’s publication output in 2018. The top 15 producers of S&E articles have been stable over the last 10 years with the exception of Iran replacing Taiwan.
Research papers from United States and EU countries continue to have the most impact; however, China has shown a rapid increase in producing impactful publications, as measured by references to journal articles and conference papers.
