In a recently released report, the National Science Foundation notes that
[T]he number of U.S. science and engineering (S&E) articles in major peer-reviewed journals flattened in the 1990s, after more than two decades of growth, but U.S. influence in world science and technology remains strong. The report, Changing U.S. Output of Scientific Articles: 1988 – 2003, finds changes occurred despite continued increases in funding and personnel for research and development. Flattening occurred in nearly all U.S. research disciplines and types of institutions. In contrast, emerging Asian nations had large increases in publication numbers, reflecting their growing expertise in science and technology. European Union totals also went up.
So, the U.S. is basically spending more to achieve exactly the same thing?
Related Websites
Changing U.S. Output of Scientific Articles: 1988–2003: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/nsf07320/
The Changing Research and Publication Environment in American Research Universities: http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/srs07204/
posted by Kevin Stolarick
July 20th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
There is the possibility that the increased funding is ending up in for-profit research, which doesn’t tend to end up in public domain academic journals. Any data on that?
July 20th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Perhaps less articles are getting past the review process and/or the journals are being pickier about the articles they are publishing?