What You Publish Matters: A Novel Way of Measuring Research Sophistication

Abstract

We adopt a concept from the field of international economics called “export sophistication” and transform it into two scientometric indicators we name PUBLY and REARY which can be considered proxies for research sophistication. PUBLY is a hypothetical value of income per capita connected with conducting research in a research area. REARY is a hypothetical value of income per capita connected with the research structure of a country. We present ranking of the best and worst performers based on the values of the indicators, discuss their importance and shortcomings. The indicators constitute a new tool for governments and other stakeholders to evaluate national research structure based on its theoretical economic contribution.

Keywords: Comparative advantage; Research sophistication; Research quality; Income per capita; Research structure