Making Strides

Iran's scientific output grew 18-fold from 1996 to 2008, going from 736 published papers to 13,238, says New Scientist's Andy Coghlan. According to a new report from the UK's Royal Society, this is the fastest rate of scientific growth in the world to date. Collaborations between researchers in Iran and the US have also grown, going from 388 collaborative papers to 1,831 over that same time period, Coghlan adds. Although the US, Europe, and Japan are still the leaders in terms of overall scientific output, rapidly industrializing areas — such as India, Brazil, China, and the Middle East — are catching up. "Turkey, for example, quadrupled its output between 1996 and 2008, after increasing six-fold its funding for R&D. Similar trends emerged in Tunisia, Singapore, and Qatar," Coghlan says. "While the proportion of papers with US authors has slipped from 26 to 21 percent, China has risen from sixth to second place with 10.2 percent of the authored papers, up from 4.4 percent in 1996," he adds.