Most science is published from countries lacking in democracy and freedom of press

TL;DR

Most scientific publications come from countries with low democracy and press freedom ratings, according to a global bibliometric analysis.

Contribution

The study reveals a significant shift in scientific production from full democracies to countries with problematic democracy and press freedom ratings.

Findings

In 2024, only 22% of global scientific publications came from full democracies.

78% of 2024 publications originated from countries with problematic or worse freedom of press ratings.

87.1% of highly cited 2024 papers had at least one author from a non-full democracy country.

Abstract

Democracy and freedom of press may affect how science is prioritized, produced, communicated and disseminated. We aimed to map the production of scientific publications worldwide in terms of democracy and freedom of press ratings of countries.

This is a bibliometric study cross-linking global bibliometric data with democracy ratings and freedom of the press indices for countries around the world. Democracy ratings used the Democracy Index in 2024 and in 2006 (when first released by the Economist Intelligence Unit) and Freedom of Press ratings used the 2024 index by Reports Without Borders. The Scopus database was used for publications from each country. Fractional counts were assigned for publications co-authored by authors from different countries. Full articles, reviews, conference papers, books and book chapters were included.

In 2024, countries characterized as full democracies produced only 22% (915,102/4,185,853) of the Scopus-indexed publications, versus 66% (1,157,842/1,757,310) in 2006. There was no correlation between the ratio of publications indexed in 2024 versus 2006 and the absolute or relative change in Democracy Index between 2006 and 2024 (r = 0.02 and r = 0.00, respectively). 78% of publications in 2024 (3,255,770/4,187,136) came from countries with problematic (including USA) or worse (including China) rating for freedom of press. Proportions of publications originating from countries with problematic or worse situations were 81% (n = 3,374,348), 91% (n = 3,820,811), 61% (n = 2,537,962), 62% (n = 2,608,802), and 63% (n = 2,650,819) for political, economic, legislative, sociocultural, and safety/security dimensions, respectively. Results were similar when limited to articles published in 2024 in journals with continuous annual presence in Scopus during 2006–2024. 87.1% (1,489/1,710) of the highly cited papers published in 2024 (with 150 or more Scopus citations by November 23, 2025) have at least one author from a country that is not full democracy and 98.8% (1,690/1,710) of these highly cited papers have at least one author from a country that does not have good freedom of press.

Most published science originates from countries struggling or suffering in democracy and/or freedom of press. The deeper causes and implications of this emerging landscape require further study.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s41073-026-00190-6.

Figures