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A comprehensive analysis of life sciences and medicine databases indicates that research topics have become increasingly standardized across countries over the last five decades. This trend toward standardization enhances the production efficiency of emerging research topics. However, it also diminishes the efficiency of generating Nobel Prize-level topics regardless of a country's economic strength.

Tsukuba, Japan—Over the last 50 years, research activities have become increasingly globalized. Although the advantages of global homogenization and standardization have been extensively discussed, their potential drawbacks, particularly in the field of scientific innovation, have received limited attention. In this study, researchers at University of Tsukuba explored the effects of research globalization by tracking the evolution of research topics over the last 50 years. This study used PubMed, the most extensive repository of life sciences and medicine articles encompassing articles from 53 countries, such as the United States, China, and Japan.

Research findings reveal that although the total number of papers and research on emerging topics have increased with globalization and the improved economic strength of individual countries, the efficiency of producing Nobel Prize-level topics has declined significantly since 2000. This decline seems to be independent of a country's economic strength. Furthermore, researchers discovered that the standardization of research topics reduces the efficiency of generating Nobel Prize-level topics, suggesting that research globalization drives this homogenization.

The insights gained from this study provide valuable knowledge that can inform research policy in Japan.

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This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Number 20K00266 (Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C) to R.L.O.).

Original Paper

Title of original paper:

Trends in emerging topics generation across countries in life science and medicine

Journal:

Journal of Informetrics

DOI:

10.1016/j.joi.2024.101552

Correspondence

Associate Professor OHNIWA Ryosuke L.
Associate Professor Bryan Mathis
Institute of Medicine, University of Tsukuba

Related Link

Institute of Medicine