Evolutionary patterns of national disciplinary profiles in research: 1996-2015

This paper presents an empirical study of the evolutionary patterns of national disciplinary profiles in research using a dataset extracted from Scopus covering publications from 45 nations for the period 1996-2015. Measures of disciplinary specializations and statistical models are employed to examine the distribution of disciplinary specializations across nations, the patterns of structural changes in the world's disciplinary profiles, and the evolutionary patterns of research profiles in individual nations. It is found that, while there has been a continuous process of convergence in national research profiles, nations differ greatly in their evolutionary patterns. Changes in national disciplinary profiles are decomposed into the regression effect and the mobility effect and both effects are analyzed for individual nations. The G7 and the BRICs countries are used as cases for the in-depth scrutiny. Policy implications based on the findings and directions for future research are discussed.