Edge Factors: Scientific Frontier Positions of Nations

TL;DR

This paper measures and compares the tendency of different nations to pursue novel scientific ideas, revealing significant geographical disparities in scientific frontier positions across countries.

Contribution

It introduces a new method to quantify a nation's position relative to the scientific frontier based on its use of recent ideas in biomedical research.

Findings

United States and South Korea lead in novel science.

China favors newer ideas in basic science but lags in clinical ideas.

Many countries remain far behind the leaders in scientific novelty.

Abstract

A key decision in scientific work is whether to build on novel or well-established ideas. Because exploiting new ideas is often harder than more conventional science, novel work can be especially dependent on interactions with colleagues, the training environment, and ready access to potential collaborators. Location may thus influence the tendency to pursue work that is close to the edge of the scientific frontier in the sense that it builds on recent ideas. We calculate for each nation its position relative to the edge of the scientific frontier by measuring its propensity to build on relatively new ideas in biomedical research. Text analysis of 20+ million publications shows that the United States and South Korea have the highest tendencies for novel science. China has become a leader in favoring newer ideas when working with basic science ideas and research tools, but is still slow to adopt new clinical ideas. Many locations remain far behind the leaders in terms of their tendency to work with novel ideas, indicating that the world is far from flat in this regard.