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A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth

INTRODUCTION: Research productivity has been linked to a country’s intellectual and economic wealth. Further analysis is needed to assess the association between the distribution of research across disciplines and the economic status of countries. METHODS: By using 55 years of data, spanning 1962 to...

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Autores principales: Jaffe, Klaus, ter Horst, Enrique, Gunn, Laura H., Zambrano, Juan Diego, Molina, German
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32401823
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232458
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author Jaffe, Klaus
ter Horst, Enrique
Gunn, Laura H.
Zambrano, Juan Diego
Molina, German
author_facet Jaffe, Klaus
ter Horst, Enrique
Gunn, Laura H.
Zambrano, Juan Diego
Molina, German
author_sort Jaffe, Klaus
collection PubMed
description INTRODUCTION: Research productivity has been linked to a country’s intellectual and economic wealth. Further analysis is needed to assess the association between the distribution of research across disciplines and the economic status of countries. METHODS: By using 55 years of data, spanning 1962 to 2017, of Elsevier publications across a large set of research disciplines and countries globally, this manuscript explores the relationship and evolution of relative research productivity across different disciplines through a network analysis. It also explores the associations of those with economic productivity categories, as measured by the World Bank economic classification. Additional analysis of discipline similarities is possible by exploring the cross-country evolution of those disciplines. RESULTS: Results show similarities in the relative importance of research disciplines among most high-income countries, with larger idiosyncrasies appearing among the remaining countries. This group of high-income countries shows similarities in the dynamics of the relative distribution of research productivity over time, forming a stable research productivity cluster. Lower income countries form smaller, more independent and evolving clusters, and differ significantly from each other and from higher income countries in the relative importance of their research emphases. Country-based similarities in research productivity profiles also appear to be influenced by geographical proximity. CONCLUSIONS: This new form of analyses of research productivity, and its relation to economic status, reveals novel insights to the dynamics of the economic and research structure of countries. This allows for a deeper understanding of the role a country’s research structure may play in shaping its economy, and also identification of benchmark resource allocations across disciplines for developing countries.
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spelling pubmed-72197092020-05-29 A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth Jaffe, Klaus ter Horst, Enrique Gunn, Laura H. Zambrano, Juan Diego Molina, German PLoS One Research Article INTRODUCTION: Research productivity has been linked to a country’s intellectual and economic wealth. Further analysis is needed to assess the association between the distribution of research across disciplines and the economic status of countries. METHODS: By using 55 years of data, spanning 1962 to 2017, of Elsevier publications across a large set of research disciplines and countries globally, this manuscript explores the relationship and evolution of relative research productivity across different disciplines through a network analysis. It also explores the associations of those with economic productivity categories, as measured by the World Bank economic classification. Additional analysis of discipline similarities is possible by exploring the cross-country evolution of those disciplines. RESULTS: Results show similarities in the relative importance of research disciplines among most high-income countries, with larger idiosyncrasies appearing among the remaining countries. This group of high-income countries shows similarities in the dynamics of the relative distribution of research productivity over time, forming a stable research productivity cluster. Lower income countries form smaller, more independent and evolving clusters, and differ significantly from each other and from higher income countries in the relative importance of their research emphases. Country-based similarities in research productivity profiles also appear to be influenced by geographical proximity. CONCLUSIONS: This new form of analyses of research productivity, and its relation to economic status, reveals novel insights to the dynamics of the economic and research structure of countries. This allows for a deeper understanding of the role a country’s research structure may play in shaping its economy, and also identification of benchmark resource allocations across disciplines for developing countries. Public Library of Science 2020-05-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7219709/ /pubmed/32401823 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232458 Text en © 2020 Jaffe et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Jaffe, Klaus
ter Horst, Enrique
Gunn, Laura H.
Zambrano, Juan Diego
Molina, German
A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth
title A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth
title_full A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth
title_fullStr A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth
title_full_unstemmed A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth
title_short A network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth
title_sort network analysis of research productivity by country, discipline, and wealth
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7219709/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32401823
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0232458
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