Civilizational antecedents and evolving ecoscapes of scientific research in G20 countries

The present article examines the evolving performance of the G20 countries in academic scientific research. It finds that an Anglo-American grouping has had a slight advantage over their non -Anglophone European cohort, and both have a significant advantage over their non -Western civilizational counterparts. This seems to be an artefact of citation -based ranking that results from differences in the native language of the countries, perhaps more than any other factor. In the recent past, some evolving features have also been captured, particularly with respect to China, Saudi Arabia, India and Turkey.