2014/04/14 by Lutz Bornmann, Caroline S. Wagner, Bornmann, Lutz +3 · 1 citation
Computer Science · Decision Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Physics and Astronomy · #Complex Network Analysis Techniques #Digital Libraries (cs.DL) #Economic Growth and Development #Economic and Technological Innovation #FOS: Computer and information sciences #scientometrics and bibliometrics research
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1404.3721
openalex publication_date 2014/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, and China, and South Africa) are\nnoted for their increasing participation in science and technology. The\ngovernments of these countries have been boosting their investments in research\nand development to become part of the group of nations doing research at a\nworld-class level. This study investigates the development of the BRICS\ncountries in the domain of top-cited papers (top 10% and 1% most frequently\ncited papers) between 1990 and 2010. To assess the extent to which these\ncountries have become important players on the top level, we compare the BRICS\ncountries with the top-performing countries worldwide. As the analyses of the\n(annual) growth rates show, with the exception of Russia, the BRICS countries\nhave increased their output in terms of most frequently-cited papers at a\nhigher rate than the top-cited countries worldwide. In a further step of\nanalysis for this study, we generate co-authorship networks among authors of\nhighly cited papers for four time points to view changes in BRICS participation\n(1995, 2000, 2005, and 2010). Here, the results show that all BRICS countries\nsucceeded in becoming part of this network, whereby the Chinese collaboration\nactivities focus on the USA.\n