Two separated worlds: On the preference of influence in life science and biomedical research

Zuguang Gu

Journal of Informetrics, 2025, vol. 19, issue 2

Abstract: We introduced a new metric, “citation enrichment”, to measure country-to-country influence using citation data. This metric evaluates the degree to which a country prefers to cite another country compared to a random citation process. We applied the citation enrichment method to over 12 million publications in the life science and biomedical fields and we have the following key findings: 1) The global scientific landscape is divided into two separated worlds where developed Western countries exhibit an overall mutual under-influence with the rest of the world; 2) Within each world, countries form clusters based on their mutual citation preferences, with these groupings strongly associated with their geographical and cultural proximity; 3) The two worlds exhibit distinct patterns of the influence balance among countries, revealing underlying mechanisms that drive influence dynamics. We have constructed a comprehensive world map of scientific influence which greatly enhances the deep understanding of the international exchange of scientific knowledge. The citation enrichment metric is developed under a well-defined statistical framework and has the potential to be extended into a versatile and powerful tool for bibliometrics and related research fields.

Keywords: Citation analysis; Citation enrichment; Influence balance; Preference of influence; Over-representation analysis; Bibliometrics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:19:y:2025:i:2:s1751157725000057

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2025.101641

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