The Numbers of Scientific Papers Depend Only on the Numbers of Scientists
Abstract
For five sciences (physics, astronomy, geophysics, mathematics, and chemistry) I counted the numbers of papers published annually in 1970-2004 in 5-27 major journals in each field. The totals were divided by the numbers of members in the appropriate American societies, e.g. The American Physical Society. Corrections were made for non-American papers. The quotients (American papers per society member per year) are generally constants and show no jumps due to improved instrumentation (e.g. CCDs, Hubble, Keck, computer speeds). These tell us that the numbers of papers depend only on the numbers of research scientists, although the quality and content of those papers improve with technical improvements.
- Publication:
-
American Astronomical Society Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2006
- Bibcode:
- 2006AAS...20910803A