The Scientific Talents of Nations

Abstract

The recently discovered Matthew effect for countries (MEC) is a measurable phenomenon in the world-wide system of scientific communication. This system is of interest for scientometrics, sociology of science, as well as for research policy. Its functioning is nased largely on citing mechanisms, involving the citation activity and choices of individual scientists, scientific institutions and whole scientific nations. The Science Citation Index is an appropriate means for studying and assessing the scientific power of nations. The MEC states that a minority of countries, expecting a high number of citations per scientific paper, is gaining even more citations than expected, while the majority of countries, expecting only a low number of citations per scientific paper, is gaining fewer citations than expected. Relative national los/gain is a measure that describes the extent a country is affected by the MEC. Countries belonging to the losers -the majority that experiences a loss of citations- can be assigned to a Left World, the winners -those few countries wich gain extra citations- to a Right World in which the top scientific nations are found. The results that establish the existence of a MEC are based on the investigation of 44 countries which produce altogether about 2,5 million scientific papers and 9,5 million citations over five years. In this study the MEC is confronted with the entire gospel parable of the entrusted talents (ST. MATTHEW 25, 14-30). A detailed correspondence of essential aspects of the bibliometric MEC on the one hand and the Biblical gospel parable, on the other is observed