Scientometrics, Vol. 13. Nos 1-2 {1988) 3-9

World Flash on Basic Research

SCIENTOMETRIC VERSUS SOCIO-ECONOMIC INDICATORS. SCATTER PLOTS FOR 51 COUNTRIES.

1978-1980

T. BRAUN, A. SCHUBERT

Information Science and Scientometrics Research Unit (ISSR U) Library of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences

P.O. Box 7, H~1361 Budapest (Hungary)

Comments to Figures 1-10

Previous basics: scientometric indicators used in the following figures are identical with those reported in T. BRAUN, W. GIANZEL, A. SCHUBERT: One more version of the facts and figures on publication output and relative citation impact of 107 countries, 1978-1980, Scientometrics, 11 (1987) 9 and 11 (1987) 127.

Data sources: annual cumulatbns of the magnetic tapes of the Science Citation

Index (SCI) ~tatabase of the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI, Philadelphia, PA, USA) were used as source of scientometric data.

Population, GNP, and energy consumption data are from "Development Indicators." In: World Development Report 1982. Published for the World Bank by Oxford Uni-

versity Press, 1982. Source of telephone data is "The World's 'Telephones, A Statistical Compilation

as of January 1981", AT&T Long Lines, Morris Plains, NJ, USA, 1982. Source and citation periods: original papers, review papers, notes, and letters

published in the SCI source journals in 1978-80 were considered source items, and citation to them in the two years following their publication were counted. Thus, e.g., mean citation rate per paper was culculated as 1979-80 citations to 1978 papers plus 1980-81 citations to 1979 papers plus 1981-82 citations to 1980 papers divided by the number of publications in 1978-80.

Selection o f countries: all countries, which produced at least 300 first authored papers in the~our~/d'period were included. (Papers were assigned to countries accord-

1" Elsevier, Amsterdam-Oxford-New York Akad#miai Kiad6, Budapest

W O R L D F L A S H O N B A S I C R E S E A R C H

10 6

, a

15

105 E

S

104

5

103

5

102106

.~ 3000

2000

1000

z

oUSA

�9

�9 DEU �9 �9

�9

�9 AUS �9 SWE oNLD

�9 �9

�9 ISR B~L _�9 �9 DNK "CSK

FIN�9 NZL�9 A~T �9 ZAF�9 �9

� 9

oSUN

~NO

BGR YUG �9 CHN �9 �9 �9 �9 NGA �9

�9 IRL �9 �9 �9

�9

oVEN �9 HGK �9 �9

PRT ~ IRN e e eeMYS �9

SAU IRQ �9 �9 SGP �9 NOR

, , , I . . . . I , , I . . . . I , , , I . . . . 107 108 109

Fig. l . Population

�9 I S R /

ARG I r = 0.750 / BRA I CHN / EGY / " CHE IND ~ �9 IRN ~

NGA J / PAK I ~ FIN ~ �9 PRT J �9 / ROM f f �9 THA I ~ .~ " __. �9 DELl TUR �9 el-HA yEN / // " . ; E L "

/ H U N � 9 ~ �9 e oJPN

P �9 L--.~.fL ̂ - oITA SUN�9 o ~

, . ~ L ~ , - ~ S G , P ~ I 7 ~ ] ~ , t S 10 15

Per capita GNP ~103

Fig. 2.

Scientometrics 12 (1988)

1

,o

R

! z

3000

2000

1000

o~

WORLD FLASH ON BASIC RESEARCH

elSR /

r=0.693

ARG eCHE ~ / BRA I ~ CHN ~ " eSWE EE~ C-BR DNK / / CANe .... �9 AUS/ / �9 I le,~ IRN -.-- " i~/" / "U~ IRQ NLL �9 , 7 / KEN KOR / / MY5 , ~ I N / .NOR MEX I / N L D . / NGA I~[U I

SAU / ~ " A U T THAl IRL ~ .... j , ) r csK..ooR / / / , , p U N ~OL / ~ ~ T A BGRe'~.~JN

~ 2 " f . C , . ~ , . , ~ , , , t/EN I ~ I I I I I I t I

2 4 6 8 10 12 Per copito energy cOnsumption , 103 kg cocll

Fig. 3.

E) 3~176 oxs8

t ~ r = 0 . 8 4 2 / /

[ / tRL CSK J"

0 ePRT /eHGK 1 200 tOO 600 800 1000

Number of telephOneS per 10 3 population

Fig. 4,

Scientometrics 12 [1988)

WORLD FLASH ON BASIC RESEARCH

3

us~ r = 0 . 5 9 0 /

IISR / eNLO CHE

0,. . / .c , :~~ uEx ITA / 3 ~ ~us j ~ . , , , ~

.._.'.~T ._.. "'i ~*~>"~ ..oR ~uM i - ~ " .u~ / / okRA ~

�9 . *~'~o ESP / / . . . . . . . ~_~..#~ .....

_>~_~'AE" .sAu

}y ~'ROM " oDOR

Z. "~ , , , ~ I , , = , I , , , , [ I

5 10 t5 Per c~oitcl GNP ,10 3 $

Fig, 5.

3 .~ - -

t

: - - elSR e C H E / eNLD SWE - - DNK �9

MeE~XI. eFI'A 3ePN / FINe e:AIE~ ~ .NOR . . . .

~,%o /,., .%%< : ~ �9 IRN _f?" " / . . . . . . A U i

RQ �9 �9 HUN tPOL

]~ eCSK ~. i l l ~ EGY / -ROM "DDR

D 2 4 6 8 10 12 Per capita tmergy consumption ~ 10 3 kg cOal

Fig. 6.

6 Scientometrics 12 (1988)

WORLD FLASH ON BASIC RESEARCH

3 �9 ISR +JF ~ ~ .~w~ ~- / MEX �9 / F I N A U S ~ ~5 I - " PRT ITA . . / N O R e ~

F A R G e H G K ' / ~ . . . . o / e K O R / / F R A "

I - "BRA , ~ E S P ~ .I VEN'y ! R L ~ . G R C .... ~. T H A 2 . . . ~ - ' ~ S G t ; ~ + "NZL

M Y S ~ N I ' Z A F ~ c HUL n eAUT

. . . . .

~ ~;I~ND _ oCSK 1~- .... "BGR'DDR

~LN 0 zoO 400 600 8oo lOOO

Number Of telephones per ~0 3 populolion

Fig. 7.

1.2 -- r= 0.811 / C , ~

- ~'NLO ~ , ~ / u , ~ / " ~

�9 1r N ~,Vo~., 10 -- / r t N / e B E L

| ~ ~.N N Z J / ~ " - - + [ KEN HUN �9 I T A o / ~

| "~@/

~ ' ~ .~,o I ] ~ . ~ P Y .LR_ N _

O~o ~"~' ~'~,~ , , , o , , , ~,. Per capita GNP ,103 |

Fig. 8.

, +

Scientometrics 12 (1988) 7

WORLD FLASH ON BASIC RESEARCH

1.8,

1 . 6 - r=0.706

) , 7 - CHE-

- GBR DELIo ~

_ . eKEN CHL._ . ZAFo ~ o e ~ N eCS K U.O - - �9 M~'X ~ I S R ' L ~ " ' - NZL . . . .

BRA HGK~ RG r-or RL eROM ~ I-,%" 0 . ~ ~ ~ .... . ~ _

O.g EGY CHN KOR

02 i t ~ I ~ I i I i I I 2 4 6 8 10 12

Per copito energy cor~sumption plO3kg cool

Fig. 9.

r=0.816 g

1.2 ~- ~ eCHE -

"0 FRA DEU NLD ~ e D N K ~ " ~ W E

~, F OOR ~ FtA~'~--~R-." ' ' ~ �9

~ ' ~ S U N " AU~'V '~ -_~S _,... USA ~ e H U N c s K I S R ~ :]~N ; ' ~ L CAN ! �9 e ~II I~IT A

�9 POL HC4~ .

0 6 T - ~ ~N ~ ~ I I,,~,,,~\B~ ,~p ~ I~ u I ~--~--xX~HL~CYUG . . . . / 1 ~ A I

�9 o "-...zoo ~ ~o 600 ~ / Number of teNephones per 103 pOpulotion

Fig. zo.

ing to the corporate address of the first author as indicated in the byline of the publication.)

Citation indicators: Indicators of the type "citation rate per paper" are to be inter- preted as mentioned above, i.e., considering counts of three two-years citation periods and one three-years source period (1978-80) . Expected citation rates were calculated from the average citation rates of the journals involved. Actual Citation rates were

8 $cientometrics ]2 (1988)

WORLD FLASH ON BASIC RESEARCH

the results of direct citation counts. Relative citation rate means the ratio of actual to expected citation rates.

Correlation coefficients and regression lines: coefficients of correlation (r) between each scientometric - socio-economic indicator pair are indicated in Figs 2-10. The closer the value of r to 1.0, the closer the relationship between the indicators con- cerned. The two crossing straight lines are the regression lines corresponding to the best linear approximations of the interrelation between the two variables concerned, The angle of inclination between the two lines indicates the strength of correlation: if r = 1 then the two lines coincide, in case of r = O, the two lines are orthogonal to each other. Strikingly, the highest correlation with the scientometric indicators is shown by the number of telephones indicator. This underlines the impact of the infrastructural environment on the quality and quantity of scientific research.

Country codes: triliteral country codes according to ISO standard are used throughout the figures:

ARG Argentine KEN Kenya AUS Australia KOR Korea AUT Austria MYS Malaysia BEL Belgium MEX Mexico BRA Brazil NLD Netherlands BGR Bulgaria NZL New Zealand CAN Canada NGA Nigeria CHL Chile NOR Norway CHN China PAK Pakistan CSK Czechoslovakia POL Poland DNK Denmark PRT Portugal EGY Egypt ROM Romania FIN Finland SAU Saudi Arabia FRA France SGP Singapore DDR German Democratic Republic ZAF South Africa DEU Germany, Federal Republic ESP Spain GRC Greece SWE Sweden HGK Hong Kong CHE Switzerland HUN Hungary THA Thailand IND India TUR Turkey IRN Iran GBR United Kingdom IRQ Iraq USA USA IRL Ireland SUN USSR ISR Israel VEN Venezuela ITA Italy YUG Yugoslavia JAP Japan

Scientometrics 12 {1988) 9