Scientific Output of US and European Universities Scales Super-Linearly with Resources

Abstract

By using a comprehensive dataset of US and European universities, we demonstrate super-linear scaling between university revenues and their volume of publications and citations. We show that this relationship holds both in the US and in Europe. In terms of resources, our data show that three characteristics differentiate the US system: (1) a significantly higher level of resources for the entire system, (2) a clearer distinction between education-oriented institutions and doctoral universities and (3) a higher concentration of resources among doctoral universities. Accordingly, a group of US universities receive a much larger amount of resources and have a far higher number of publications and especially citations when compared to their European counterparts. These results demonstrate empirically the pervasiveness of a social order where financial resources are tightly coupled with ameasure of ‘excellence’ associated with international rankings and, additionally, where the widely accepted measures of ‘excellence’ in reality ‘prime’ resources. They therefore raise important questions for policy-making and for the management of higher education institutions.