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A comparison of the scientific performance of the U.S. and the European union at the turn of the 21st century

Author

Listed:
  • Pedro Albarrán

    (Universidad Carlos III)

  • Juan A. Crespo

    (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid)

  • Ignacio Ortuño

    (Universidad Carlos III)

  • Javier Ruiz-Castillo

    (Universidad Carlos III)

Abstract

In this paper, scientific performance is identified with the impact that journal articles have through the citations they receive. In 15 disciplines, as well as in all sciences as a whole, the EU share of total publications is greater than that of the U.S. However, as soon as the citations received by these publications are taken into account the picture is completely reversed. Firstly, the EU share of total citations is still greater than the U.S. in only seven fields. Secondly, the mean citation rate in the U.S. is greater than in the EU in every one of the 22 fields studied. Thirdly, since standard indicators—such as normalized mean citation ratios—are silent about what takes place in different parts of the citation distribution, this paper compares the publication shares of the U.S. and the EU at every percentile of the world citation distribution in each field. It is found that in seven fields the initial gap between the U.S. and the EU widens as we advance towards the more cited articles, while in the remaining 15 fields—except for Agricultural Sciences—the U.S. always surpasses the EU when it counts, namely, at the upper tail of citation distributions. Finally, for all sciences as a whole the U.S. publication share becomes greater than that of the EU for the top 50% of the most highly cited articles. The data used refers to 3.6 million articles published in 1998–2002, and the more than 47 million citations they received in 1998–2007.

Suggested Citation

  • Pedro Albarrán & Juan A. Crespo & Ignacio Ortuño & Javier Ruiz-Castillo, 2010. "A comparison of the scientific performance of the U.S. and the European union at the turn of the 21st century," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 85(1), pages 329-344, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:85:y:2010:i:1:d:10.1007_s11192-010-0223-7
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-010-0223-7
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    3. Sara Amoroso & Simone Vannuccini, 2019. "Teaming up with Large R&D Investors: Good or Bad for Knowledge Production and Diffusion?," SPRU Working Paper Series 2019-20, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    4. Gergaud, Olivier & Ginsburgh, Victor & Moreno-Ternero, Juan D., 2021. "Wine Ratings: Seeking a Consensus among Tasters via Normalization, Approval, and Aggregation," Journal of Wine Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(3), pages 321-342, August.
    5. Mátyás, László & Balázsi, László & Dömötör, Erika, 2016. "Emberi tényező a gazdaságban. Összegzés a COEURE-projekt tanulmányaiból, I [The human factor in the economy. Summary of the COEURE project studies, I]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(4), pages 407-430.
    6. Kovac, Dejan & Scrbec, Nikol & Podobnik, Boris, 2018. "Does it payoff to research economics—A tale of citation, knowledge and economic growth in transition countries," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 505(C), pages 293-305.
    7. Jürgen Janger & Agnes Kügler & Andreas Reinstaller & Fabian Unterlass, 2017. "Austria 2025 – Looking Out For the Frontier(s): Towards a New Framework For Frontier Measurement in Science, Technology and Innovation," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 59289, March.
    8. Günter Krampen & Peter Weiland & Jürgen Wiesenhütter, 2015. "Citation success of different publication types: a case study on all references in psychology publications from the German-speaking countries (D–A–CH–L–L) in 2009, 2010, and 2011," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 104(3), pages 827-840, September.
    9. Koen Jonkers & Frédérique Sachwald, 2018. "The dual impact of ‘excellent’ research on science and innovation: the case of Europe," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 45(2), pages 159-174.
    10. Günter Krampen & Alexander Eye & Gabriel Schui, 2011. "Forecasting trends of development of psychology from a bibliometric perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(3), pages 687-694, June.
    11. Martin Grančay & Tomáš Dudáš & Ladislav Mura, 2022. "Revealed comparative advantages in academic publishing of “old” and “new” European Union Member States 1998–2018," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(3), pages 1247-1271, March.
    12. Pin-Hua Lin & Jong-Rong Chen & Chih-Hai Yang, 2014. "Academic research resources and academic quality: a cross-country analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 101(1), pages 109-123, October.
    13. Jürgen Janger & Klaus Nowotny, 2013. "Career Choices in Academia. WWWforEurope Working Paper No. 36," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 46922, March.
    14. Seeber, Marco & Alon, Ilan & Pina, David G. & Piro, Fredrik Niclas & Seeber, Michele, 2022. "Predictors of applying for and winning an ERC Proof-of-Concept grant: An automated machine learning model," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).

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