Publication Output by Region, Country, or Economy and by Scientific Field

This section of the report outlines trends over time in publication output across regions, countries, or economies and by fields of science. This section also provides insights into the research contributions of different regions, countries, or economies and how the focus of their scientific publications has changed over time. In addition, the section highlights variations in the distribution of publications across scientific fields for different regions, countries, or economies and examines trends over time in closed-access and open-access (OA) publications. This section also summarizes federal funding acknowledgments as a source of data to shed light on published research that received federal funding. (See sidebar Using Funding Acknowledgments to Track Federally Funded Research Over Time.)

Output by Region, Country, or Economy

Total worldwide S&E publication output reached 3.3 million articles in 2022, based on entries in the Scopus database. Approximately 86% of publications in 2022 came from regions, countries, or economies with high-income and upper-middle-income economies (Figure PBS-1). The number of publications from all income-level groups grew between 2003 and 2022 (Table SPBS-2). Also, the number of publications from upper-middle-income economies grew more quickly than the number from high-income economies during the more recent period between 2010 and 2022.

S&E publications, by income group: 2003–22
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S&E publications, by income group: 2003–22

(Number of articles)
Publication year High-income regions, countries, or economies Upper-middle-income regions, countries, or economies Lower-middle-income regions, countries, or economies
2003 988,350 183,766 50,230
2004 1,055,000 224,923 54,803
2005 1,155,808 277,279 63,191
2006 1,201,338 312,720 72,698
2007 1,230,857 341,548 82,295
2008 1,264,921 388,391 95,432
2009 1,302,688 439,429 108,638
2010 1,337,497 474,610 123,537
2011 1,386,153 500,322 144,905
2012 1,419,298 516,484 155,762
2013 1,440,053 551,692 165,534
2014 1,460,943 594,695 181,313
2015 1,470,651 630,385 193,760
2016 1,477,780 680,857 218,627
2017 1,485,658 729,920 241,744
2018 1,507,004 815,662 279,283
2019 1,545,329 935,664 314,980
2020 1,579,578 1,010,023 345,874
2021 1,673,007 1,136,819 406,144
2022 1,629,873 1,255,995 433,645
Note(s):

Article counts refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles produced by authors from different regions, countries, or economies, each region, country, or economy receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). Data are not directly comparable with data from Science and Engineering Indicators 2022; see the Technical Appendix for information on data filters. Low-income regions, countries, or economies are not included in this figure because of their low publication output. Data by region, country, or economy and income group are available in Table SPBS-2. Regions, countries, or economies are allocated to income groups based on World Bank data, using their current designation. For example, all of China’s publications from 2003 to 2022 are counted as part of the upper-middle-income category because that is China's current designation.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023; World Bank Country and Lending Groups, accessed May 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

In 2022, six regions, countries, or economies each produced more than 100,000 articles: China, the United States, India, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Japan. Together, these leading regions, countries, or economies accounted for over 50% of the worldwide total in 2022 (Figure PBS-2; Table PBS-1). In absolute numbers, the growth in worldwide annual publication output (from 2.0 million in 2010 to 3.3 million in 2022) was driven in particular by two countries: China (42% of additional publications during that period) and India (11%) together accounted for more than half of that increase in publications (Figure PBS-3). Russia, South Korea, Iran, and Brazil made notable contributions to the growth in the number of publications from the rest of the world from 2010 to 2022 (Figure PBS-3; Table SPBS-2). Generally, the set of the top 15 producers of S&E articles was the same each year between 2010 and 2022, with the exception of Iran replacing Taiwan in the top 15 beginning in 2014 (Table PBS-1; Table SPBS-2).

S&E publications for 10 leading regions, countries, or economies: 2022
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S&E publications for 10 leading regions, countries, or economies: 2022

(Number of articles)
Region, country, or economy Number of publications
China 898,949
United States 457,335
India 207,390
Germany 113,976
United Kingdom 105,584
Japan 103,723
Italy 90,586
Russia 84,252
South Korea 76,936
Canada 69,052
Note(s):

Article counts refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles produced by authors from different regions, countries, or economies, each region, country, or economy receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). Data by all countries, regions, and economies are available in Table SPBS-2.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

S&E publications in all fields for 15 largest producing regions, countries, or economies: 2012 and 2022

(Number and percent)

na = not applicable.

Note(s):

The regions, countries, or economies are ranked based on the 2022 total. Article counts refer to publications from conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journal articles in S&E and indexed in Scopus (see Technical Appendix for more details). Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles from multiple regions, countries, or economies, each region, country, or economy receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). Detail may not add to total because of regions, countries, or economies that are not shown. Proportions are based on the world total excluding unclassified addresses (data not presented). Details and other regions, countries, or economies are available in Table SPBS-2.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

S&E publications, by selected region, country, or economy and rest of world: 2003–22
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S&E publications, by selected region, country, or economy and rest of world: 2003–22

(Number of articles)
Publication year World United States Germany United Kingdom China India Japan Rest of world
2003 1,236,106 336,491 74,320 77,151 88,585 26,638 101,382 531,539
2004 1,345,967 360,329 77,210 80,816 121,751 28,557 103,830 573,474
2005 1,508,837 390,403 85,128 86,341 165,867 32,734 112,257 636,107
2006 1,599,532 394,240 87,145 89,912 192,882 37,740 113,533 684,080
2007 1,668,894 396,306 90,199 92,537 213,648 42,045 109,140 725,018
2008 1,762,986 399,273 93,344 92,751 248,120 47,758 107,614 774,125
2009 1,862,709 404,008 96,400 95,007 285,756 53,200 109,027 819,312
2010 1,950,178 413,705 98,512 95,150 309,193 60,266 108,733 864,619
2011 2,045,351 426,832 101,238 96,414 323,332 71,375 110,457 915,703
2012 2,105,157 430,164 105,639 98,685 329,067 78,135 109,040 954,426
2013 2,168,061 432,033 106,118 99,859 355,651 82,849 108,551 983,000
2014 2,245,240 434,412 108,118 99,811 385,101 91,832 105,287 1,020,679
2015 2,302,230 436,908 108,479 101,175 406,734 98,301 102,019 1,048,614
2016 2,386,418 437,546 110,726 101,572 436,614 107,484 102,449 1,090,028
2017 2,467,960 440,418 111,427 102,027 468,713 113,509 102,425 1,129,442
2018 2,613,116 447,164 111,308 102,782 532,295 130,235 103,957 1,185,374
2019 2,811,110 451,480 113,492 103,938 617,494 132,820 104,006 1,287,880
2020 2,955,562 457,587 112,179 104,648 672,735 148,410 102,788 1,357,215
2021 3,240,279 472,448 119,604 109,939 766,200 179,806 109,075 1,483,206
2022 3,344,037 457,335 113,976 105,584 898,949 207,390 103,723 1,457,079
Note(s):

Article counts refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles produced by authors from different countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). Data for all regions, countries, and economies are available in Table SPBS-2.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

The U.S. trend of moderate but increasing publication output varied by state. The National Science Board’s (NSB’s) State Data Tool (https://ncses.nsf.gov/indicators/states/) provides state-level data based on each state’s doctorate population and research and development (R&D) funding. Indicators include academic S&E article output per 1,000 science, engineering, and health doctorate holders in academia (NSB 2021a) and academic S&E article output per $1 million in academic S&E R&D funding (NSB 2021b).

Output by Scientific Field

The distribution of publications by field of science across region, country, or economy may indicate research priorities and capabilities. Health sciences was the field of science in which most articles were published in 2022, representing almost a quarter of all publications (Table SPBS-2 and Table SPBS-10). Other fields with large numbers of publications included engineering (17% of publications in 2022), biological and biomedical sciences (13%), and social sciences (5%) (Table SPBS-2, Table SPBS-5, Table SPBS-8, and Table SPBS-16). In the United States, the European Union (EU-27), and Japan, health sciences publication output in 2022 far exceeded that of any other field. Meanwhile, of the other top producers, publications from China were most highly concentrated in engineering (25%), and publications from India were published predominantly in computer and information sciences (21%) (Figure PBS-4).

Distribution of national S&E research portfolios across scientific fields, by selected region, country, or economy: 2022
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Distribution of national S&E research portfolios across scientific fields, by selected region, country, or economy: 2022

(Percent of S&E publications)
Region, country, or economy Health sciences Biological and biomedical sciences Engineering Computer and information sciences Physics Chemistry Social sciences Materials science Other
United States 37.4 14.1 10.8 7.3 5.1 3.0 8.5 1.2 12.6
EU-27 27.1 13.6 13.2 9.3 7.9 5.1 7.6 2.4 13.8
Japan 34.3 13.8 12.9 8.8 10.4 6.7 2.1 2.7 8.3
China 14.1 12.4 25.4 11.4 9.0 8.0 1.5 5.0 13.2
India 15.2 10.6 17.6 21.2 9.1 7.9 2.1 6.3 10.2

EU-27 = European Union.

Note(s):

Articles refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles from multiple countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). See Table SPBS-1 for countries included in the EU; beginning in 2020, the United Kingdom was no longer a member of the EU. See Table SPBS-3 through Table SPBS-16 for data on all regions, countries, and economies by each S&E field.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

Fields within life sciences were dominant in the United States in 2022, with more than half of all U.S. publications in health sciences (37%) or biological and biomedical sciences (14%) (Figure PBS-5). There were fewer U.S. publications in engineering (11%), computer and information sciences (7%), and physics (5%). In comparison with the United States, China had a stronger focus on publications in engineering and in the physical sciences and information sciences. In 2022, 25% of China’s publications were in engineering, 11% were in computer and information sciences, and 9% were in physics (Figure PBS-6). Compared with the United States, China had a lower percentage of its publications in health sciences (14%) and biological and biomedical sciences (12%). In 2022, China also had a much lower percentage of its publications in social sciences (1%) when compared with the United States (8%).

U.S. S&E publication portfolio, by field of science: 2022
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U.S. S&E publication portfolio, by field of science: 2022

(Percent)
Field Percent
Health sciences 37.4
Biological and biomedical sciences 14.1
Engineering 10.8
Social sciences 8.5
Computer and information sciences 7.3
Physics 5.1
Psychology 4.2
Chemistry 3.0
Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences 2.7
Mathematics and statistics 2.2
Natural resources and conservation 1.4
Agricultural sciences 1.2
Materials science 1.2
Astronomy and astrophysics 0.9
Note(s):

Articles refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles from multiple countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). See Table SPBS-3 through Table SPBS-16 for data on all regions, countries, and economies by each S&E field.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

S&E publication portfolio from China, by field of science: 2022
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S&E publication portfolio from China, by field of science: 2022

(Percent)
Field Percent
Engineering 25.4
Health sciences 14.1
Biological and biomedical sciences 12.4
Computer and information sciences 11.4
Physics 9.0
Chemistry 8.0
Materials science 5.0
Natural resources and conservation 4.0
Agricultural sciences 3.3
Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences 3.0
Mathematics and statistics 1.9
Social sciences 1.4
Psychology 0.9
Astronomy and astrophysics 0.2
Note(s):

Articles refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles from multiple countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). See Table SPBS-3 through Table SPBS-16 for data on all regions, countries, and economies and by each S&E field.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

All the leading regions, countries, or economies saw an increase in their output of health sciences publications between 2010 and 2022. This increase is to be expected, given the context of increasing publication rates in general over that period, with overall number of publications increasing by 71% (Table SPBS-2), while publications in health sciences increased by 66% (Table SPBS-10). Russia had the highest relative growth rate among the 20 leading regions, countries, or economies in health sciences, increasing its publication output by almost 450% between 2010 and 2022 (Table SPBS-10). China and Iran each increased their output of health sciences publications by more than 250% over this period, while India’s health sciences publication output increased by more than 180%. The United States increased its output of health sciences publications by 32% over this period, while Germany, France, the United Kingdom, and Japan had the smallest increases, each with less than 20%.

Leading regions, countries, or economies also saw increases in engineering publications. The fastest growing between 2010 and 2022 were India (up 378%) and Russia (up 230%) (Table SPBS-8). China increased its output of engineering publications by 176% from 2010 to 2022, while France, the United States, and Japan all saw declines in newly published engineering articles per year over this period (3%, 13%, and 26%, respectively).

In the United States, publication output varied from that of other regions, countries, or economies with respect to scientific fields. Of the fields not already mentioned, the fastest growing from 2010 to 2022 were psychology (up 39% from 2010 to 2022) and the social sciences (up 38%) (Figure PBS-7). Meanwhile, fields with the largest decreases in U.S. publications included physics (down 31% from 2010 to 2022) and materials science (down 16%).

Index of U.S. publications, by field: 2010–22
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Index of U.S. publications, by field: 2010–22

(Index [base: 2010 = 100])
Year Social sciences Psychology Health sciences Mathematics and statistics Natural resources and conservation Agricultural sciences Biological and biomedical sciences Chemistry Astronomy and astrophysics Geosciences, atmospheric sciences, and ocean sciences Computer and information sciences Materials science Engineering Physics
2010 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
2011 103.4 106.1 104.3 103.7 112.8 93.0 103.5 105.0 102.7 100.5 101.0 94.5 99.8 106.3
2012 101.4 110.6 106.3 107.8 95.7 99.6 108.0 103.3 107.7 102.3 99.9 91.6 100.6 101.0
2013 105.0 112.0 106.5 109.7 97.7 94.2 106.8 106.3 100.5 113.3 98.6 93.5 101.7 98.4
2014 106.6 120.2 109.2 110.0 102.4 91.4 108.1 105.0 97.0 112.1 93.8 93.3 101.1 94.6
2015 113.3 121.1 111.8 109.5 100.7 96.7 106.2 103.9 103.4 107.3 99.4 92.1 97.6 91.7
2016 115.1 119.5 113.0 110.8 107.5 98.3 102.6 103.8 96.5 114.8 99.9 91.1 99.7 86.9
2017 116.8 125.2 113.9 113.0 115.2 104.1 101.4 100.8 99.5 111.9 102.6 93.2 97.2 90.8
2018 119.0 125.1 116.0 112.5 113.3 107.1 100.3 104.5 98.6 118.9 106.8 100.2 101.9 85.3
2019 121.4 127.5 116.3 116.5 120.2 111.5 100.8 100.7 101.0 110.2 117.9 99.8 101.4 85.5
2020 124.2 126.5 124.5 116.1 116.1 116.8 106.3 101.9 103.7 105.8 108.7 95.2 93.9 83.4
2021 129.1 134.1 134.6 120.2 123.9 120.1 115.1 96.9 101.9 100.3 108.0 90.2 90.3 75.3
2022 137.7 139.3 131.8 122.5 116.5 108.7 106.3 90.6 103.6 89.9 102.7 83.8 87.2 68.8
Note(s):

Articles refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication and are assigned to a region, country, or economy on the basis of the institutional address(es) of the author(s) listed in the article. Articles are credited on a fractional count basis (i.e., for articles from multiple countries, each country receives fractional credit on the basis of the proportion of its participating authors). See Table SPBS-3 through Table SPBS-16 for data on all regions, countries, and economies by each S&E field.

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

Using Funding Acknowledgments to Track Federally Funded Research Over Time

Output and Open Access

There is growing support for the availability of S&E publications through OA sources among government and private funders, institutions, and scientists themselves. Some of these funders have imposed requirements on their grantees to publish their research results in OA journals. In the United States, the Office of Science and Technology Policy announced that all federal agencies should update their public access policies as soon as possible to ensure that results of their funded research are publicly available, with full implementation of these policies by the end of 2025 (Brainard and Kaiser 2022). Meanwhile, restricted access to scientific literature may impede researchers’ ability to stay informed (Larivière and Sugimoto 2018; Piwowar et al. 2018). As alternatives to traditional closed-access journals (where readers must subscribe to gain access or pay per article), articles may be made OA through several avenues, with different levels of availability and durability.

There are four commonly defined types of OA: Gold, Hybrid, Bronze, and Green. Gold OA denotes articles published in journals that are entirely OA as a matter of journal policy. Hybrid OA denotes articles for which the authors have elected to pay a fee for publication as OA rather than as closed access. Bronze OA denotes articles that appear as OA after an embargo period of closed access or articles that appear available as OA despite lacking license information to guarantee OA in the long term. Green OA denotes articles that are self-archived by authors in OA repositories, which are often maintained, curated, and administered by universities or other institutions. The Hybrid and Bronze categories have been combined as Other Journal-Based OA in this report because of their similar structure as journal-hosted types of OA that allow only conditional—and potentially revocable—OA.

The number of articles published annually in closed-access journals increased by 112% between 2003 and 2022 (Figure PBS-8). Over the same period, annual publishing of Green OA articles increased by 228%, while Other Journal-Based OA articles (Hybrid and Bronze OA) increased by 198%. Gold OA articles (which are published in OA journals with no restrictions) had the largest percentage growth, from 19,089 articles in 2003 to 991,805 articles in 2022, an increase of over 5,000%. Hence, although the majority (77%) of S&E articles in 2003 whose access status is known were published in closed-access journals, fewer than half (49%) were in closed-access journals in 2022.

S&E publications, by publication access type: 2003–22
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S&E publications, by publication access type: 2003–22

(Number of articles)
Publication year Closed access Green OA Other Journal-Based OA Gold OA
2003 716,290 79,136 111,900 19,089
2004 749,747 89,408 119,386 22,584
2005 846,261 110,069 124,548 30,095
2006 927,801 126,067 129,641 41,497
2007 983,096 145,872 134,450 49,937
2008 1,001,082 170,936 145,627 67,063
2009 1,040,201 191,714 158,239 83,949
2010 1,083,721 203,325 162,058 106,460
2011 1,119,780 211,503 178,121 139,931
2012 1,137,037 220,373 189,811 178,889
2013 1,160,217 238,154 200,600 208,857
2014 1,176,541 246,834 214,518 257,864
2015 1,186,666 259,016 218,231 310,487
2016 1,209,852 266,903 238,672 359,083
2017 1,217,879 283,349 241,314 430,867
2018 1,277,758 290,252 249,655 498,502
2019 1,332,273 294,347 257,418 634,366
2020 1,286,235 295,769 294,709 793,327
2021 1,372,042 310,619 325,757 962,403
2022 1,520,454 259,813 332,915 991,805

OA = open access.

Note(s):

Articles refer to publications from a selection of conference proceedings and peer-reviewed journals in S&E fields from Scopus. Articles are classified by their year of publication. OA types are mutually exclusive. For articles published under multiple OA types, the article will be counted as part of only the first type it matches in this list: Gold OA, Other Journal-Based OA, or Green OA. Summing all OA and closed-access article counts results in a smaller number of articles than for all S&E because the access status of some articles (e.g., those without digital object identifiers) cannot be reliably ascertained. Green articles are published in toll-access journals but archived in an OA archive, or "repository." These repositories may be discipline specific (like arXiv) or institutional repositories operated by universities or other institutions. Green articles may be published versions or preprints and can have any license or no license. Bronze (Other Journal-Based OA) articles are free to read on the publisher's website, without a license that grants any other rights. There may be a delay between publication and availability to read, and often articles can be removed unilaterally by the publisher. Hybrid (Other Journal-Based OA) articles are free to read at the time of publication, with an open license. These are usually published in exchange for an article processing charge. Gold articles have all the same characteristics as Hybrid articles but are published in all-OA journals, which are in turn called "Gold journals" or just "OA journals."

Source(s):

National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics; Science-Metrix; Elsevier, Scopus abstract and citation database, accessed April 2023.

Science and Engineering Indicators

To conclude this section, the findings of the output analysis reveal the growth in scientific publications over time, with upper-middle-income economies exhibiting particularly large percentage increases. Meanwhile, the distribution of publications across scientific fields shows that life sciences dominated in the United States, Europe, and Japan, whereas publications in engineering and computer sciences dominated in China and India. In OA, the dramatic growth of Gold OA publications and the steady growth of publications in other OA categories show an increased shift toward open science. However, OA can impede the dissemination of some scientific research. Publishing research as OA often requires authors to pay article processing fees, which may be prohibitive for scientists in less-developed nations or whose funders do not subsidize those fees. The fees can be seen as shifting the costs of accessing research from readers and libraries to authors (Larivière and Sugimoto 2018).