Adams, J., and Pendlebury, D. Global Research Report United States. Thomson Reuters, Leeds, UK. 2010. ISBN: 1-904431-28-3. Pages: 12.

The Thomson Reuters Global Research Report series has produced a new volume focused on the United States, and looking specifically at this country’s comparative position on the global research landscape.  The report’s main, and highly provocative, message is that “the US is no longer the Colossus of Science”. New competition in the production of scientific papers is coming on strong from Europe and Asia.  The so-called BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China), whose scientific achievements and developments have been reported in previous numbers in this series, also show high aspirations and potential to compete in this arena. From producing some 40% of the papers indexed in the Web of Science in the 1990s, US scientists’ output on this measure decreased to 29% in 2009. The report endeavours to raise key questions—such as “Why is the US lagging behind and what can be done about it?”—and provide meaningful answers to this complex phenomenon.

Thomson Reuters