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BRICS countries and scientific excellence: A bibliometric analysis of most frequently cited papers
Author(s) -
Bornmann Lutz,
Wagner Caroline,
Leydesdorff Loet
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.23333
Subject(s) - excellence , bibliometrics , china , political science , regional science , economic growth , economics , geography , library science , computer science , law
The BRICS countries ( B razil, R ussia, I ndia, C hina, and S outh A frica) are notable for their increasing participation in science and technology. The governments of these countries have been boosting their investments in research and development to become part of the group of nations doing research at a world‐class level. This study investigates the development of the BRICS countries in the domain of top‐cited papers (top 10% and 1% most frequently cited papers) between 1990 and 2010. To assess the extent to which these countries have become important players at the top level, we compare the BRICS countries with the top‐performing countries worldwide. As the analyses of the (annual) growth rates show, with the exception of R ussia, the BRICS countries have increased their output in terms of most frequently cited papers at a higher rate than the top‐cited countries worldwide. By way of additional analysis, we generate coauthorship networks among authors of highly cited papers for 4 time points to view changes in BRICS participation (1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010). Here, the results show that all BRICS countries succeeded in becoming part of this network, whereby the C hinese collaboration activities focus on the US .