Trends in synthetic organic chemistry research. Cross-country comparison of Activity Index

Abstract

Chemistry is accepted as the central science since it encompasses the great divide between Physics and Biology with linkages to many othert disciplines. But recent emergence of other interdisciplinary sciences likes biomedicine, molecular biology, biotechnology etc. are overshadowing chemical research. Still one of the subfields of chemistry, Synthetic Organic Chemistry (SOC) retained its importance as it is a part of new drug discovery and is the basis of bulk of chemical industry. Scientometric evaluation of world’s research output in Synthetic Organic Chemistry has been quantified for two periods spans 1989–1993 and 1998–2003. The global trends in publication output are mapped and a cross-country comparison of the relative activity in the subspecialty is examined. The Activity Index trend reveals that though quantitatively USA, Japan and European nations produce more publications, their Activity Index recorded a declining trend and leads to the conclusion that these nations are shifting their interest towards other emerging specialties. Asian countries, having recorded a linear increase in the Activity Index show that synthetic organic chemistry is still their priority.