Monge-Nájera Julian, Nielsen Vanessa
Revista Biologia Tropical, Universidad de Costa Rica, 2060 San José, Costa Rica.
Rev Biol Trop. 2005 Mar-Jun;53(1-2):283-94.
Traditionally, studies of scientific productivity are biased in two ways: they are based on Current Contents, an index centered in British and American journals, and they seldom correct for population size, ignoring the relative effort that each society places in research. We studied national productivity for biology using a more representative index, the Biological Abstracts, and analyzed both total and relative productivity. English dominates biological publications with 87% (no other individual language reaches 2%). If the USA is considered a region by itself, it occupies the first place in per capita production of biology papers, with at least twice the productivity of either Asia or Europe. Canada, Oceania and Latin America occupy an intermediate position. The global output of scientific papers is dominated by Europe, USA. Japan, Canada, China and India. When corrected for population size, the countries with the greatest productivity of biology papers are the Nordic nations, Israel, Switzerland, Netherlands, Australia, Saint Lucia and Montserrat. The predominance of English as the language of biological research found in this study shows a continuation of the trend initiated around the year 1900. The large relative productivity of the USA reflects the importance that American society gives to science as the basis for technological and economic development, but the USA's share of total scientific output has decreased from 44% in 1983 to 34% in 2002, while there is a greater growth of science in India, Japan and Latin America, among others. The increasing share obtained by China and India may reflect a recent change in attitude towards funding science. The leadership of Nordic nations, Israel, Switzerland, Netherlands and Australia can be explained by cultural attitude. Apparently, a positive trend is emerging in Latin America, where Chile improved its ranking in per capita productivity but Argentina, Costa Rica, Uruguay, Brazil and Cuba fell. Nevertheless, the most productive countries in total number of papers are Brazil, Mexico and Argentina: large countries with a long tradition of funding scientific research.
传统上，科学产出的研究存在两方面的偏差：它们以《现刊目次》为基础，这是一个以英美期刊为核心的索引，而且它们很少对人口规模进行校正，忽略了每个社会在研究方面投入的相对努力。我们使用更具代表性的索引《生物学文摘》研究了各国在生物学领域的产出，并分析了总产出和相对产出。英语在生物出版物中占主导地位，占87%（没有其他单一语言的占比达到2%）。如果将美国单独视为一个地区，它在生物学论文的人均产出方面位居第一，其生产率至少是亚洲或欧洲的两倍。加拿大、大洋洲和拉丁美洲处于中间位置。全球科学论文的产出主要由欧洲、美国、日本、加拿大、中国和印度主导。在对人口规模进行校正后，生物学论文生产率最高的国家是北欧国家、以色列、瑞士、荷兰、澳大利亚、圣卢西亚和蒙特塞拉特。本研究中发现英语作为生物研究语言的主导地位表明始于1900年左右的这一趋势仍在延续。美国相对较高的生产率反映了美国社会对科学作为技术和经济发展基础的重视，但美国在科学总产出中的份额已从1983年的44%降至2002年的34%，而印度、日本和拉丁美洲等地区的科学发展则有更大增长。中国和印度所占份额的增加可能反映了近期对科学资助态度的转变。北欧国家、以色列、瑞士、荷兰和澳大利亚的领先地位可以用文化态度来解释。显然，拉丁美洲正在出现积极趋势，智利在人均生产率方面提升了排名，但阿根廷、哥斯达黎加、乌拉圭、巴西和古巴的排名下降。然而，论文总数最多的高产国家是巴西、墨西哥和阿根廷：这些大国有着长期资助科学研究的传统。
