Sovereign and dependent territory rows of the World Bank “Scientific and technical journal articles” indicator (top 30 by the latest year). Counts articles in physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, clinical medicine, biomedical research, engineering and technology, and earth and space sciences; internationally co-authored articles are assigned fractionally. Original source: US National Science Foundation, Science and Engineering Indicators. Aggregates (region.id === “NA”) are excluded.
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How to use this chart
Play/Pause starts and stops the year-by-year animation, the year slider jumps to any year, and the speed selector (0.5×, 1×, 2×) changes playback speed. Each year shows the top 12 entries out of the 30 held in the dataset.
About this ranking
About this metric. This ranking reformats World Bank indicator IP.JRN.ARTC.SC, which counts scientific and engineering articles published each year in physics, biology, chemistry, mathematics, clinical medicine, biomedical research, engineering and technology, and earth and space sciences. Internationally co-authored papers are assigned fractionally to each author’s country. Values are numbers of articles; the original source is the US National Science Foundation’s Science and Engineering Indicators.
What to watch. The core of this race is China — ninth in 1996 at 33,621 articles — overtaking the long-time leader, the United States, in 2017. The crossover year is close, 464,154 to 435,377, but by 2023 China’s 932,712 articles are more than double the US total of 430,843. India passing Japan in 2016 is another moment worth watching.
Caveats. The indicator counts the number of articles, not their quality or citation impact. It is compiled from an indexed journal database, so changes in what the database covers move the values. Only the 30 countries with the highest latest-year values are kept, so small research-intensive countries with low absolute counts do not appear.
Trends in the data
The 2023 leaders are China at 932,712 articles, the United States at 430,843, India at 228,174, Germany at 108,782, the United Kingdom at 97,536 and Japan at 96,543. The 30-country average rose from 29,401 articles in 1996 to 55,754 in 2010 and 95,484 in 2023 — a 3.2-fold increase — and the group’s combined output grew from 882,031 to 2,864,524 articles.
China is the story’s protagonist. Its 1996 output was about one-ninth of the US total; it reached 165,262 articles in 2005, 307,848 in 2010, all but drew level in 2016 at 430,350 against 431,808, and passed the United States in 2017. By 2023 its output stood at 27.7 times the 1996 level, while the United States peaked at 471,378 in 2021 and has since declined.
The steepest curves are elsewhere. Iraq multiplied its output 229-fold from 73 to 16,724 articles, Indonesia 128-fold from 304 to 38,992, and Iran 85-fold from 649 to 55,085. Malaysia (801 to 23,691), Pakistan (728 to 20,519), Saudi Arabia (1,660 to 24,595) and Thailand (848 to 16,656) all grew by factors of tens — evidence that research publishing is no longer the preserve of a few rich countries.
Japan is the counterpoint. Second in 1996 at 88,807 articles, it peaked at 112,743 in 2006 and slid to sixth by 2023 at 96,543 — a 1.1-fold rise over 27 years, the lowest growth among the 30. France grew from 46,611 to 62,180 yet fell from fifth to 11th, and India took third place after passing Japan in 2016 and Germany in 2017. Russia traces a curve of its own: flat from 34,672 in 1996 to 33,835 in 2010, then a surge to 85,558 by 2023.
Trivia quiz
What is considered the world's oldest scientific journal?
Philosophical Transactions, founded by the Royal Society in London in 1665. It published Newton's work on optics and is still in print today. (Source)
What is peer review in academic publishing?
A pre-publication evaluation in which researchers from the same field assess the validity of a submitted paper's methods and conclusions. (Source)
What does a researcher's h-index measure?
It is the largest number h such that the researcher has h papers cited at least h times each — combining output and citations in one figure. It was proposed by physicist Jorge Hirsch in 2005. (Source)
Source
World Bank — Scientific and technical journal articles (IP.JRN.ARTC.SC)