A view from Web of Science: Journals, articles, impact

Scholarly communication is truly global. While in the past, articles based upon scientific research were primarily from the United States and Europe, today countries such as China, South Korea, and Brazil – along with others that were minor contributors a decade or so ago – are becoming major players. Journals of regional importance have emerged that are worthy of consideration. In parallel, a certain level of global competition has also emerged and as a result it has become obvious that some questionable publishing activities such as self-citations and the acceptance of research papers that are shallow in content are now in play. This paper will take a look at the publication activity as noted in Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science over the past decade from a set of ten selected countries.