B – UK scientific papers rank first in citations

Marshall E, Travis J. U.K. Scientific papers rank first in citations. Science 2011, October 28;334:443

The UK Department for Business, Innovation and Skills released a citation analysis that found that UK “attracts more citations per pound spent in overall research and development than any other country”. A similar analysis for the period 1991 to 2010 by Thomson Reuters reported that UK produced 17% of the world’s research papers with more than 500 citations and 20% of those with more than 1,000 citations. Today UK scientific papers have the greatest impact in the world and biological sciences are the strongest area of research. This performance surpassed even that of the United States, which has the world’s best-funded research system.