scientific reports impact factor 2016

The Scholarly Kitchen

What’s Hot and Cooking In Scholarly Publishing

Scientific Reports On Track To Become Largest Journal In The World

• Business Models
• Metrics and Analytics
• Open Access

PLOS ONE is poised to lose its claim as the largest journal in the world soon, with rival journal, Scientific Reports , taking its place.

Scientific Reports , published by Springer Nature was a relative latecomer to the scene, and, at the time of its launch, many skeptics did not believe that there would be room for yet another multidisciplinary open access journal. Both Scientific Reports and PLOS ONE are run by an immense, diffuse group of section editors, accept papers without novel findings, and charge the same article processing charge (APC) — $1,495. A trader on Wall Street would claim that these journals were providing fungible commodity services.

But, are these journals really interchangeable? If so, what explains  Scientific Reports  growth at the apparent expense of PLOS ONE ?

• Journal Impact Factor.
• Data Availability Policies
• Publication Delay

Journal Impact Factor (JIF) . In the last (2015) release, Scientific Reports received a score of 5.228 compared to 3.057 for PLOS ONE . In addition, Scientific Reports has maintained a score above 5 for the last three consecutive years whereas  PLOS ONE ‘s JIF has declined. While many editors and publishers eschew the indicator, scientists consider the JIF as an important factor when deciding where to submit their work, according to Nature Publishing Group’s 2015 Author Insights survey as well as the recent University of California’s  Pay It Forward report .

Data Availability Policies.  In 2014, stronger data availability policies were enacted  across all PLOS journals , requiring authors to make “all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception.” All PLOS manuscripts must include a data availability statement and authors are strongly encouraged to make their data available in a public archive before publication. In contrast, Scientific Reports’ policy merely states that authors should share upon request . Research by Tim Vines has shown that  the willingness and ability for authors to share data declines significantly with time , and having a weak data availability policy is only marginally better than having no policy at all . While advocates of open science argue for full data transparency, there is considerable resistance from the biomedical community , and freedom from a strong editorial policy may provide Scientific Reports with a competitive advantage.

Publication Delay. Anecdotally, colleagues told me that it was faster to get a paper published in Scientific Reports than PLOS ONE . To confirm this, I took the last 100 papers published in each journal and calculated the time from submission to acceptance, acceptance to publication, as well as the full publication process. Time to acceptance was about a month shorter for Scientific Reports , (median days = 99 [ IRQ : 78–146]) than it was for PLOS ONE (132 days [IRQ: 100–173]). Although once accepted, PLOS ONE was able to publish the papers about a week sooner (19 days [IRQ: 14–23]) than Scientific Reports (27 days [IRQ: 25–28]). In all, the median time from submission to publication was 126 days for Scientific Reports and 151 days for PLOS ONE , a difference of about three weeks.

According to the 2015 Author Insights Survey , Chinese authors rate the JIF and Time (both time to acceptance and time to publication) as more important than other respondents. This is not surprising, as many institutions reward Chinese authors with monetary rewards for publishing in high impact journals , and publication numbers confirm these institutional rewards. For papers published since 2015, 39% of Scientific Reports authors were from China, compared to 18% for PLOS ONE  (source: Web of Science).

In sum, given two large multidisciplinary open access journals with similar editorial structure and publication cost, authors appear to be favoring the one with the higher Impact Factor, faster publication time, and more lenient data availability policies.

As I’ve argued in the past, drawing vast numbers of submissions is not always the wisest business model for longterm success. PLOS ONE drew record submissions immediately after they received their first JIF . If the kind of author seeking publication in a megajournal is primarily motivated by the JIF, then the same downward turn observed with PLOS ONE is likely to happen with Scientific Reports as well. Given that the JIF reflects the publication preferences of authors publishing two and three years ago, we may see waves of authors oscillating between these two journals every few years.

An unpredictable publication flow and revenue stream through APCs will have very different effects on the two publishers. Springer Nature has an enormous, diversified stable of journals and revenue streams, which allows them to play a long-term strategy game with Scientific Reports . Annual revenue fluctuations with one journal are not going to put Springer Nature in financial trouble. In contrast, PLOS’ income is almost exclusively based on APC revenue, with  97% of their 2014 revenue coming from publication fees . More importantly, 91% of all 2015 papers published in PLOS journals were published in PLOS ONE , the remaining 9% split among six other journals. As revenue from  PLOS ONE functions to subsidize the publication costs of these six other titles, downward pressure on PLOS ONE  puts the entire organization at risk.

Given that the leading edge of the above publication graph reflects papers submitted in the winter and spring of 2016, the influence of the last Journal Impact Factor scores should start revealing themselves later this fall.

Phil Davis is a publishing consultant specializing in the statistical analysis of citation, readership, publication and survey data. He has a Ph.D. in science communication from Cornell University (2010), extensive experience as a science librarian (1995-2006) and was trained as a life scientist. https://phil-davis.com/

28 Thoughts on "Scientific Reports On Track To Become Largest Journal In The World"

This is a win for open access. As PLOS stated in 2011, “Welcome, Nature. Seriously”. http://blogs.plos.org/plos/2011/01/welcome-nature-seriously-2/

• By steelgraham
• Aug 23, 2016, 6:07 AM

Perhaps, but one wonders how they are handling the dramatic drop in revenue? It has to hurt a bit.

• By David Wojick
• Aug 23, 2016, 9:58 AM

One way they’re handling it is by raising their APC price. https://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2015/09/29/plosone-hikes-pub-fees/

• By David Crotty
• Aug 23, 2016, 1:55 PM

The Chinese numbers are interesting in their own right, perhaps enough for a separate analysis. Is there some sort of OA mandate at work here?

• Aug 23, 2016, 9:55 AM

I would think that in China this is more Impact Factor-driven than open access-driven.

You forgot to mention that Springer publishes 116 scientific Chinese journals. Chinese scientific authors tend to cite each other and probably have an impact on the impact factor. Springer has an office in China -Peking- and an editorial presence. Springer actively participates in the Chinese scientific publishing arena.

• By harvey kane
• Aug 23, 2016, 11:02 AM

Two more factors that might have some bearing on Scientific Reports’ growth come to mind: 4. Manuscripts rejected by PLOS ONE get accepted and published in Scientific Reports. 5. Looks good to have ones work associated with Nature, even if only at the URL level.

• By saša marcan
• Aug 23, 2016, 11:05 AM

4. Manuscripts rejected by PLOS ONE get accepted and published in Scientific Reports.

Sasa, do you have access to any data on how often this happens?

• By Rick Anderson
• Aug 23, 2016, 12:00 PM

“Although once accepted, PLOS ONE was able to publish the papers about a week sooner”

Does anyone know if Scientific Reports edit and send proofs to authors prior to publication? I was shocked to learn that PLOS ONE no longer does this and even refuse to make corrections to published material when they’re pointed out by authors. If Scientific Reports does take the time to more carefully proof before publishing, that could explain how PLOS ONE is faster.

I’m also curious what the Scientific Reports accept percentage is. Another criticism which seems to be snowballing related to PLOS ONE is that their peer review process has increasingly become weaker. Both journals seem to have the same basic policy as far as “we accept good science.” A lower accept rate by Scientific Reports may indicate that they are more rigorous in upholding that standard via peer review.

• By Adam Etkin (@adametkin)
• Aug 23, 2016, 12:47 PM

Acceptance rate at Scientific Reports as of 2012 (don’t have more recent data) was 55% https://peerj.com/articles/981/#results

• Aug 23, 2016, 1:01 PM

No, it’s just speculation, but it wouldn’t be such a surprise, especially taking PLOS ONE’s less forgiving data availability policy into account.

• Aug 23, 2016, 1:34 PM

My understanding is that they don’t actively enforce that policy, and instead leave things to the reviewers and review editor, so how many submissions they’re actually driving away is unclear.

• Aug 23, 2016, 1:53 PM

Well, now we have a horse race.

• By Kent Anderson
• Aug 23, 2016, 9:09 PM

This sort of journal merely perpetuates the excessive profits of legacy publishers. Far better to publish in eLife or Royal Society Open Science. They are both free to the authors as well as the reader (for the time being anyway).

• By David Colquhoun
• Aug 24, 2016, 10:37 AM

Given eLife’s different selection criteria and 85% rejection rate ( http://www.nature.com/news/open-access-journal-elife-gets-25-million-boost-1.20005 ), I suspect that very few PLOS ONE and Scientific Reports authors would likely be able to publish there.

• Aug 24, 2016, 10:53 AM

So we just need a lot more like that. We should not be promoting legacy publishers.

• Aug 24, 2016, 3:39 PM

Probably depends on what you mean by “we” and “legacy publishers.” The Royal Society started their journal publishing program in 1665, yet you recommend them.

• Aug 24, 2016, 3:47 PM

I recommended Royal Society Open Science, which is recent, and free for both authors and readers,

I certainly can’t grumble about the 130,000 full text views and 19,400 pdf downloads which my paper got there -it was published in volume 1, before the journal even had an impact factor. See http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/1/3/140216.article-info

That’s the future of publishing, not Springer.

• Aug 24, 2016, 4:28 PM

And also the past of publishing. A new type of journal from the oldest of legacy publishers. If they can learn a new trick, who’s to say that other old dogs can’t as well?

• Aug 24, 2016, 5:08 PM

They are doing. But they charge far too much for them. That’s why I signed the Elsevier boycott. It would cost universities far less if they subsidised new journals (shouldn’t be more that $200 -300 per paper) just as the Royal Soc subsidises RSOS.

• Aug 24, 2016, 5:22 PM

Interesting to me that nobody has brought up discipline issues as they relate to both journals/publishers. Like it or not (at least at present) PLoS is still known in many corners as primarily a life sciences and medical publisher, where Springer’s reputation is far more broad-based, discipline-wise. So why would anyone be surprised to see the number of papers being submitted to and published in Scientific Reports outstripping those in PLOS One, when the number of disciplinary areas with researchers who are well acquainted with the reputations of each publisher are so different?

I just did a quick single term search in both titles for four words. Here are the numbers of hits.

PLOS One: biology – 120,462, medicine – 104,045, business – 5,442, engineering – 37,011 Scientific Reports: biology – 3,448, medicine – 88,822, business – 60,691, engineering – 125,054

Springer is a well known commodity as a publisher in more subject areas than is PLoS, so I would think it likely that once Scientific Reports (as a newer journal) became better known in the researcher community that its submissions and papers published would outstrip those of PLOS One – Scientific Reports is drawing from a much larger group of disciplinary areas that are familiar with the journal’s publisher (Springer) than is the case with PLOS One (PLoS).

So maybe the reasons for the trends that Phil points out above are related to impact factor, data availability policies and time to publication, or maybe it’s that there are LOTS more people outside of medicine and biology who are more familiar with Springer than with PLoS and are more comfortable submitting to a mega-journal from a publisher with whom they have that greater familiarity.

• By Mel DeSart
• Aug 25, 2016, 4:15 PM

OK, some of my data above are incorrect. When you search on the PLoS site and indicate you want to search just within PLOS One, that’s what actually happens, even if you simply repeatedly plug in different keywords one right after the other. But on the Springer-Nature site, the _first_ keyword search just within SR searches just within SR, but if you simply replace that keyword with a second one, as I did yesterday, the site switches over to searching across all Nature family titles, To search just within SR again for a different keyword you have to back out one level and enter your search term there OR indicate that you want to search in SR each time you enter a new keyword. WHY the site is set up that way is a mystery. But the bottom line is that my numbers yesterday from PLOS One were correct, but for the ones from SR, only the first number, the one from searching “biology”, is correct.

Correct results are:

PLOS One: biology – 120,462, medicine – 104,045, business – 5,442, engineering – 37,011

Scientific Reports: biology – 3448, medicine – 2965, business – 162, engineering – 4631

So without doing a search just over just more _recent_ content published in both journals, I don’t know whether the subject discipline favoritism toward the Springer-Nature title vs. the PLoS title that I speculated on yesterday exists or not. So Phil, your points may all be the correct drivers after all.

Sorry I didn’t catch yesterday that the Springer-Nature site was broadening the search parameters unless you specified limiting to Scientific Reports with EVERY search done.

• Aug 26, 2016, 1:09 PM

The data sharing policy of PLOS One has no teeth. I have never seen them enforce it when authors flat out refused to share. So, policy or no, the two journals are functionally equivalent on data sharing.

• By psyoskeptic
• Aug 27, 2016, 9:13 PM

The numbers along the X-axis of the graph are unreadable, primarily because they have a vertical position. I suggest to put them in a horizontal position. I also suggest a significant reduction in the amount of numbers listed along the X-axis (at the moment one at every tick). Both changes will dramatically improve the readability of this nice graph. I suggest that there are no longer posted graphs over here with numbers along the X-axis which are in a vertical position.

• By Klaas van Dijk
• Aug 28, 2016, 3:07 PM

Writing out the time points on the graph in a horizontal manner would have required the X-axis to be massively extended (40 notations of 7 characters each), stretching things out to a point where the visual effectiveness and practical utility of the graph would be lessened, if not entirely destroyed. Given that the X axis labels are repeated time points (showing the first, fourth, seventh and 10th month of each year), the pattern should be fairly obvious to the viewer. One could potentially simplify the labeling by only showing the first month of each year, but given the space allotted, likely this label would need to remain in a vertical orientation.

• Aug 28, 2016, 5:00 PM

Comments are closed.

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Scientific Reports

Journal Abbreviation: SCI REP-UK Journal ISSN: 2045-2322

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Scientific Reports is an online, open access journal from the publishers of Nature. It publishes scientifically valid primary research from all areas of the natural and clinical sciences.

The 2016 journal metrics for Scientific Reports are as follows:

• 2-year impact factor: 4.259
• 5-year impact factor: 4.847
• Immediacy index: 0.647
• Eigenfactor ® score: 0.38761 
• Article influence score: 1.482
• 2-year median: 3

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Scientific Reports Impact Factor & Key Scientometrics

Scientific reports overview, impact factor.

I. Basic Journal Info

Journal ISSN: 20452322

Publisher: nature publishing group, history: 2011-ongoing, journal hompage: link, how to get published:, research categories, scope/description:.

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II. Science Citation Report (SCR)

Scientific reports scr impact factor, scientific reports scr journal ranking, scientific reports scimago sjr rank.

SCImago Journal Rank (SJR indicator) is a measure of scientific influence of scholarly journals that accounts for both the number of citations received by a journal and the importance or prestige of the journals where such citations come from.

Scientific Reports Scopus 2-Year Impact Factor Trend

Scientific reports scopus 3-year impact factor trend, scientific reports scopus 4-year impact factor trend, scientific reports impact factor history.

• 2022 Impact Factor 4.44 4.731 4.836
• 2021 Impact Factor 4.543 4.813 5.073
• 2020 Impact Factor 4.13 4.486 4.731
• 2019 Impact Factor 4.149 4.482 4.655
• 2018 Impact Factor 4.239 4.481 4.603
• 2017 Impact Factor 4.543 4.667 4.86
• 2016 Impact Factor 4.738 5.096 5.258
• 2015 Impact Factor 5.89 6.091 6.119
• 2014 Impact Factor 5.99 NA NA
• 2013 Impact Factor 5.158 NA NA
• 2012 Impact Factor 3.111 NA NA
• 2011 Impact Factor 0 NA NA
• 2010 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2009 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2008 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2007 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2006 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2005 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2004 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2003 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2002 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2001 Impact Factor NA NA NA
• 2000 Impact Factor NA NA NA

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Impact factor (IF) is a scientometric factor based on the yearly average number of citations on articles published by a particular journal in the last two years. A journal impact factor is frequently used as a proxy for the relative importance of a journal within its field. Find out more: What is a good impact factor?

III. Other Science Influence Indicators

Any impact factor or scientometric indicator alone will not give you the full picture of a science journal. There are also other factors such as H-Index, Self-Citation Ratio, SJR, SNIP, etc. Researchers may also consider the practical aspect of a journal such as publication fees, acceptance rate, review speed. ( Learn More )

Scientific Reports H-Index

The h-index is an author-level metric that attempts to measure both the productivity and citation impact of the publications of a scientist or scholar. The index is based on the set of the scientist's most cited papers and the number of citations that they have received in other publications

Scientific Reports H-Index History

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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. Indicators 2018 : Bibliometric Data Filters )." data-bs-content="Publication output includes only those indexed in the Scopus database. The publication output discussion uses fractional counting, which credits coauthored publications according to the collaborating institutions or regions, countries, or economies based on the proportion of their participating authors. Country assignments refer to the institutional address of authors, with partial credit given for each international coauthorship. As part of the data analysis, filters were employed on the raw Scopus S&E publication data to remove publications with questionable quality, which appear in what are sometimes called predatory journals (NSB Indicators 2018 : Bibliometric Data Filters )." data-endnote-uuid="a5778137-c92e-4694-991d-a1545bdcca18">​ Publication output includes only those indexed in the Scopus database. The publication output discussion uses fractional counting, which credits coauthored publications according to the collaborating institutions or regions, countries, or economies based on the proportion of their participating authors. Country assignments refer to the institutional address of authors, with partial credit given for each international coauthorship. As part of the data analysis, filters were employed on the raw Scopus S&E publication data to remove publications with questionable quality, which appear in what are sometimes called predatory journals (NSB Indicators 2018 : Bibliometric Data Filters ). 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.

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

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.

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 ). Figure PBS-2 and Table PBS-1 , or whole counting, as in Table SPBS-17 . There is a slight difference between the United States and China when looking at the whole-counting total production numbers. Using whole counting for 2022, the United States had 605,633 articles, whereas China had 976,141. A whole-counting measure allocates one full count to each region, country, or economy with an author contributing to the article; in fractional counting, each region, country, or economy receives a proportion of the count based on the number of authors from that region, country, or economy. For example, if an article had four authors—two from the United States, one from China, and one from Brazil—the fractional scores would be half for the United States, a quarter for China, and a quarter for Brazil. The difference between whole and fractional counting indicates that the United States has more authors working with Chinese authors than China has working with U.S. authors." data-bs-content="The proportion of output attributable to the large producers is consistent whether using fractional counting, as in Figure PBS-2 and Table PBS-1 , or whole counting, as in Table SPBS-17 . There is a slight difference between the United States and China when looking at the whole-counting total production numbers. Using whole counting for 2022, the United States had 605,633 articles, whereas China had 976,141. A whole-counting measure allocates one full count to each region, country, or economy with an author contributing to the article; in fractional counting, each region, country, or economy receives a proportion of the count based on the number of authors from that region, country, or economy. For example, if an article had four authors—two from the United States, one from China, and one from Brazil—the fractional scores would be half for the United States, a quarter for China, and a quarter for Brazil. The difference between whole and fractional counting indicates that the United States has more authors working with Chinese authors than China has working with U.S. authors." data-endnote-uuid="a3ba485a-d862-4069-8166-933aa601ea66">​ The proportion of output attributable to the large producers is consistent whether using fractional counting, as in Figure PBS-2 and Table PBS-1 , or whole counting, as in Table SPBS-17 . There is a slight difference between the United States and China when looking at the whole-counting total production numbers. Using whole counting for 2022, the United States had 605,633 articles, whereas China had 976,141. A whole-counting measure allocates one full count to each region, country, or economy with an author contributing to the article; in fractional counting, each region, country, or economy receives a proportion of the count based on the number of authors from that region, country, or economy. For example, if an article had four authors—two from the United States, one from China, and one from Brazil—the fractional scores would be half for the United States, a quarter for China, and a quarter for Brazil. The difference between whole and fractional counting indicates that the United States has more authors working with Chinese authors than China has working with U.S. authors. 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

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 .

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

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

na = not applicable.

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 .

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

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 .