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Impact of astronomical research from different countries
Author(s) -
Sánchez S. F.,
Benn C. R.
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
astronomische nachrichten
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.394
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1521-3994
pISSN - 0004-6337
DOI - 10.1002/asna.200310238
Subject(s) - astronomer , geography , library science , history , physics , astronomy , computer science
The impact of astronomical research carried out by different countries has been compared by analysing the 1000 most‐cited astronomy papers published 1991‐8 (125 from each year). 61% of the citations are to papers with first authors at institutions in the USA, 11% in the UK, 5% in Germany, 4% in Canada, 3% in Italy and 3% in France. 17% are to papers with first authors in ESO countries. The number of citations is approximately proportional to the number of IAU members in a given country. The number of citations per IAU astronomer is highest in the USA, Switzerland and the UK. Within continental Europe, the number of citations per IAU astronomer varies little from country to country, but is slightly higher in the north than in the south. The sample of 1000 papers maps regional subject preferences. 62% of the extragalactic papers in the sample were published from the USA, 15% from the UK, 23% from other countries (mainly in continental Europe). 62% of the papers on stars were also published from the USA, but the fractions from the UK and from other countries are 2% and 36% respectively. (© 2004 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)