Scientific publications, international benchmark (WoS)
How many scientific publications did Dutch researchers and researchers from twenty reference countries publish in 2011 and 2025? In this data publication, we show both the absolute and relative number of scientific publications.
In short
- The Netherlands publishes on average when we look at the absolute number of scientific publications in 2025.
- China and the US published the most scientific publications in 2025.
- The Netherlands produced the largest number of scientific publications per 100 FTE researchers in 2024.
How many scientific publications were published by the Netherlands and reference countries in 2011 and 2025?
| 2011 | 2025 | |
| CHN | 162177 | 961679 |
| US | 364609 | 429084 |
| UK | 100373 | 147964 |
| GER | 95396 | 127353 |
| ITA | 55470 | 98361 |
| JPN | 77462 | 88090 |
| KOR | 45519 | 83088 |
| CAN | 58830 | 82647 |
| AUS | 45159 | 80122 |
| FRA | 67457 | 79865 |
| ESP | 50595 | 78259 |
| NLD | 33780 | 48789 |
| CHE | 24431 | 38866 |
| SWE | 21506 | 34527 |
| BEL | 18875 | 28038 |
| DNK | 13590 | 24604 |
| AUT | 12793 | 22154 |
| SGP | 9878 | 20996 |
| NOR | 10799 | 19175 |
| FIN | 10772 | 17017 |
| IRE | 7412 | 13326 |
How many scientific publications were published per 100 FTE researchers in 2024?
| Productivity | |
| NLD | 143 |
| CHE | 142 |
| SWE | 136 |
| US | 119 |
| DEN | 114 |
| NOR | 109 |
| CAN | 105 |
| AUT | 103 |
| AUS | 102 |
| KOR | 97 |
| ITA | 94 |
| FIN | 90 |
| BEL | 89 |
| SGP | 86 |
| IRE | 83 |
| UK | 81 |
| ESP | 72 |
| GER | 71 |
| CHN | 67 |
| FRA | 61 |
| JPN | 51 |
Analysis
China and the US published the most scientific publications in 2025. The top graph also shows that between 2011 and 2025 the number of publications from China grew very strongly. The Netherlands is in the middle of the pack when it comes to the absolute number of scientific publications. However, when we compare the number of publications to the number of FTE researchers in the public sector, we see that Dutch researchers are the most productive.
Publications are usually the result of a collaboration between multiple researchers, often from different institutions in different countries. A 'Dutch' scientific publication is a publication in which at least one Dutch researcher has participated. The first author is often the one who has done the most work for the publication. For 57% of Dutch scientific publications in the period 2021-2024, a researcher from a Dutch organization is the first author.