The Geography of Scientific Reports

In an editorial in Science magazine calling for building scientific capacity in developing nations (and pointing out that doing so would be good for all mankind) Mohamed H. A. Hassan, the Executive Director of the Third World Academy of Sciences, writes:

The United States continues to dominate global science. In 2007, U.S. scientists published nearly 30% of the articles appearing in international peer-reviewed scientific journals, which is comparable to the percentage a quarter-century ago. But China, responsible for less than 1% of publications in 1983, has recently surpassed the United Kingdom and Japan to become the world's second leading nation in scientific publications. China now accounts for more than 8% of the world's total, whereas India and Brazil produce about 2.5 and 2%, respectively, of the world's scientific articles. All told, scientists in developing countries generate about 20% of the articles published in peer-reviewed international journals.