@article{TEXTUAL,
      recid = {8553},
      author = {Hather, Gregory J. and Haynes, Winston and Higdon, Roger  and Kolker, Natali and Stewart, Elizabeth A. and Arzberger,  Peter and Chain, Patrick and Field, Dawn and Franza, B.  Robert and Lin, Biaoyang and Meyer, Folker and Ozdemir,  Vural and Smith, Charles V. and van Belle, Gerald and  Wooley, John and Kolker, Eugene},
      title = {The United States of America and Scientific Research},
      journal = {PLOS ONE},
      address = {2010-08-16},
      number = {TEXTUAL},
      abstract = {<p>To gauge the current commitment to scientific research  in the United States of America (US), we compared federal  research funding (FRF) with the US gross domestic product  (GDP) and industry research spending during the past six  decades. In order to address the recent globalization of  scientific research, we also focused on four key indicators  of research activities: research and development (R&D)  funding, total science and engineering doctoral degrees,  patents, and scientific publications. We compared these  indicators across three major population and economic  regions: the US, the European Union (EU) and the People's  Republic of China (China) over the past decade. We  discovered a number of interesting trends with direct  relevance for science policy. The level of US FRF has  varied between 0.2% and 0.6% of the GDP during the last six  decades. Since the 1960s, the US FRF contribution has  fallen from twice that of industrial research funding to  roughly equal. Also, in the last two decades, the portion  of the US government R&D spending devoted to research has  increased. Although well below the US and the EU in overall  funding, the current growth rate for R&D funding in China  greatly exceeds that of both. Finally, the EU currently  produces more science and engineering doctoral graduates  and scientific publications than the US in absolute terms,  but not per capita. This study's aim is to facilitate a  serious discussion of key questions by the research  community and federal policy makers. In particular, our  results raise two questions with respect to: a) the  increasing globalization of science: “What role is the US  playing now, and what role will it play in the future of  international science?”; and b) the ability to produce  beneficial innovations for society: “How will the US  continue to foster its strengths?”</p>},
      url = {http://knowledge.uchicago.edu/record/8553},
}