Growth rates of modern science: A bibliometric analysis based on the number of publications and cited references

Understand

Many studies in information science have looked at the growth of science.

• In this study, we re-examine the question of the growth of science.
• To do this we (i) use current data up to publication year 2012 and (ii) analyse it across all disciplines and also separately for the natural sciences and for the medical and health sciences.
• Furthermore, the data are analysed with an advanced statistical technique - segmented regression analysis - which can identify specific segments with similar growth rates in the history of science.