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The Scientific Impact of Nations: Journal Placement and Citation Performance

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  • Matthew J Smith
  • Cody Weinberger
  • Emilio M Bruna
  • Stefano Allesina

Abstract

International collaboration is becoming increasingly important for the advancement of science. To gain a more precise understanding of how factors such as international collaboration influence publication success, we divide publication success into two categories: journal placement and citation performance. Analyzing all papers published between 1996 and 2012 in eight disciplines, we find that those with more countries in their affiliations performed better in both categories. Furthermore, specific countries vary in their effects both individually and in combination. Finally, we look at the relationship between national output (in papers published) and input (in citations received) over the 17 years, expanding upon prior depictions by also plotting an expected proportion of citations based on Journal Placement. Discrepancies between this expectation and the realized proportion of citations illuminate trends in performance, such as the decline of the Global North in response to rapidly developing countries, especially China. Yet, most countries' show little to no discrepancy, meaning that, in most cases, citation proportion can be predicted by Journal Placement alone. This reveals an extreme asymmetry between the opinions of a few reviewers and the degree to which paper acceptance and citation rates influence career advancement.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthew J Smith & Cody Weinberger & Emilio M Bruna & Stefano Allesina, 2014. "The Scientific Impact of Nations: Journal Placement and Citation Performance," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(10), pages 1-6, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0109195
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0109195
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    3. George A. Lozano & Vincent Larivière & Yves Gingras, 2012. "The weakening relationship between the impact factor and papers' citations in the digital age," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 63(11), pages 2140-2145, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Claudia N Gonzalez-Brambila & Leonardo Reyes-Gonzalez & Francisco Veloso & Miguel Angel Perez-Angón, 2016. "The Scientific Impact of Developing Nations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(3), pages 1-14, March.
    2. Johanna Espin & Sebastian Palmas & Farah Carrasco-Rueda & Kristina Riemer & Pablo E Allen & Nathan Berkebile & Kirsten A Hecht & Kay Kastner-Wilcox & Mauricio M Núñez-Regueiro & Candice Prince & Const, 2017. "A persistent lack of international representation on editorial boards in environmental biology," PLOS Biology, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(12), pages 1-11, December.

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