Geographical Distribution of Biomedical Research in the USA and China

TL;DR

This study analyzes the geographical distribution of biomedical research in the USA and China using geocoded PubMed data, revealing stable research hubs and slight southward shifts over 30 years.

Contribution

It provides a large-scale, data-driven analysis of research distribution, highlighting the stability and centralization of biomedical research hubs in both countries.

Findings

Research hubs are few and stable over 30 years.

Most researchers are within close proximity to major hubs.

Gradual southward shift of country centroids observed.

Abstract

We analyze nearly 20 million geocoded PubMed articles with author affiliations. Using K-means clustering for the lower 48 US states and mainland China, we find that the average published paper is within a relatively short distance of a few centroids. These centroids have shifted very little over the past 30 years, and the distribution of distances to these centroids has not changed much either. The overall country centroids have gradually shifted south (about 0.2{\deg} for the USA and 1.7{\deg} for China), while the longitude has not moved significantly. These findings indicate that there are few large scientific hubs in the USA and China and the typical investigator is within geographical reach of one such hub. This sets the stage to study centralization of biomedical research at national and regional levels across the globe, and over time.