Based on the overall size of the U.S. contribution to S&E research publication output and its relative impact, as measured by citations to its S&E publications, the United States remains a highly influential nation. The publication outputs of the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the EU-27 are concentrated in health sciences, whereas publications from China and India focused more on engineering and computer and information sciences, respectively. In terms of S&E publication quantity, China’s output has grown rapidly and is now nearly double that of the United States. In terms of impact among S&E publications, China has increased rapidly in the last decade. The high-income economies (including the United States, the EU-27, and Japan) have slowly increased their large base of S&E publications, whereas middle-income and upper-middle-income economies have rapidly increased their production, collaboration, and impact despite beginning from a smaller S&E publications base.

International research collaboration is increasing, reflecting traditional ties across regions, countries, or economies and new relationships that stem from growing capabilities in the middle-income economies. Greater publication output—with greater and more diverse collaborations—means more regions, countries, or economies are contributing, and many are doing so with U.S. authors. Finally, OA articles showed considerable growth in terms of output and impact. The growth of open science should continue to impact the way research is produced, consumed, and cited in coming years.