SPENDING TOP INSTITUTIONS HONG KONG

Research and development (R&D) investment is rising rapidly in South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong University of — albeit from dierent bases. In two decades, South Korea has close to doubled the share of its South Korea and Taiwan boast some of Science and Technology 2.00 economy spent on research. Taiwan’s proportion is not far behind, and it overtook Japan in 2016. the world’s leading institutions, according South Singapore’s spending was keeping pace with Taiwan’s, but has dropped o because of a decline in to international rankings and publication Korea Chinese University of business R&D spending. Only Hong Kong’s investment has plateaued in the past decade or so. statistics. And many of their institutions SOURCE : UNESCO/OECD Hong Kong have made impressive gains on rankings 1.94 South Korea Taiwan Singapore Malaysia Hong Kong of citation impact over the past decade. Japan United States Mainland China United Kingdom City University of Hong Kong To identify large leading universities, 1.90 FIVEFIVE 5 Nature charted institutions that published SOUTH KOREA more than 4,500 articles in 2015–17, and The University of Hong Kong whose papers were cited at least 30% Sungkyunkwan 1.84 more than the world average. University Citation impact: 1.56 = 1,000 Hong Kong Polytechnic 4 (World average = 1) publications University 1.73 Seoul National Taiwan University 1.47 3 Hong Kong TAIWAN Pohang University of National Tsing ININ ASIAASIA Science and Technology Hua University 1.46 1.65 2 Korea University National Taiwan University Spending (% GDP) 1.41 1.45

HONG KONG, MALAYSIA, Korea Advanced Institute Academia Sinica 1.37 1 of Science and Technology SINGAPORE, SOUTH 1.37 University of Ulsan SINGAPORE KOREA AND TAIWAN ARE 1.35 0 Agency for Science, INVESTING HEAVILY IN 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Hanyang University Technology and Research RESEARCH AS AN 1.34 1.96 Malaysia Nanyang Technological BUSINESS VERSUS GOVERNMENT University ENGINE FOR GROWTH. MALAYSIA 1.84 Taiwan and South Korea’s R&D investment comes mainly from the business sector, and the proportions invested in basic research are accordingly lower. In Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, University of Malaya National University of Singapore businesses provide around half the R&D nancing, more like the United States and United Kingdom. Singapore 1.37 BY RICHARD VAN NOORDEN 1.75 Business nanced Financed by government or higher education Other

Which economies invest the most in Taiwan research and development (R&D)? The South Korea answer might not be what you think. Singapore South Korea ploughs a whopping FEMALE RESEARCHERS ARTICLE OUTPUT CITATION IMPACT Malaysia 4.24% of its gross domestic product Female researchers are under-represented in South Korea’s research output had soared to Singapore and Hong Kong have stretched their (GDP) into science and technology — Hong Kong No data many Asian economies, as they are across the some 65,000 research articles in the Scopus lead over the United States and United Kingdom in world. But almost half of Malaysia’s researchers terms of the average scholarly impact of their Japan database last year. (By comparison, mainland neck and neck with Israel, and putting are female, and the United Nations says that China produced more than 414,000 articles and publications — with normalized citations far above much of Europe and the United States Mainland China Malaysia is a world leader in encouraging girls scientists in Japan published 89,000). Taiwan’s the world mean. One reason is that these and women to participate in science. output is dipping as a proportion of the world’s economies have very high rates of international to shame. Taiwan also invests heavily, United States beating science heavyweight Japan in research, but Malaysia’s volume is rising fast. collaboration, which is linked to increased citations. United Kingdom Business Government Higher education 2016 in terms of the share of its 2007 2017 World economy devoted to R&D. 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 5 10 15 20 25 average R&D spending (%) Spending on basic research 4 In East Asia, several science power- In data collected by (% of total R&D spending) Singapore houses are investing strongly in Malaysia Scopus, shown here, science. Although mainland China and Malaysia has SCIENCE WORKFORCE overtaken Hong Kong Hong Kong Japan get much of the attention here and Singapore. But — they are the area’s biggest econo- After mainland China and Japan, South Korea has the most researchers in East Asia — and Singapore 3 the Web of Science Malaysia has grown its science workforce to a point where it is now ahead of Singapore and database has them United mies and have giant scienti c workforc- Hong Kong. But in terms of researcher density, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore stand out. all about level at Kingdom es — South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore about 0.8%. Taiwan and Hong Kong have established Hong Kong United States themselves as strong supporters of Singapore 2 research, and Malaysia is fast growing Malaysia South Taiwan its scienti c output. Korea Taiwan Mainland South Korea China

United Article output (% of world) Japan Kingdom 1 South Korea United States HUBS OF ASIAN SCIENCE Mainland China Japan Malaysia ANature collection 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 nature.com/collections/asianhubs Density of researchers Number of researchers 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 (per thousand population) (millions) Female researchers (%) 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 Citation impact

500 | NATURE | VOL 558 | 28 JUNE© 20182018 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. ©2018 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved.

FEATURE NEWS

SPENDING TOP INSTITUTIONS HONG KONG

Research and development (R&D) investment is rising rapidly in South Korea, Taiwan and Malaysia Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong University of — albeit from dierent bases. In two decades, South Korea has close to doubled the share of its South Korea and Taiwan boast some of Science and Technology 2.00 economy spent on research. Taiwan’s proportion is not far behind, and it overtook Japan in 2016. the world’s leading institutions, according South Singapore’s spending was keeping pace with Taiwan’s, but has dropped o because of a decline in to international rankings and publication Korea Chinese University of business R&D spending. Only Hong Kong’s investment has plateaued in the past decade or so. statistics. And many of their institutions Hong Kong have made impressive gains on rankings 1.94 South Korea Taiwan Singapore Malaysia Hong Kong of citation impact over the past decade. Japan United States Mainland China United Kingdom City University of Hong Kong To identify large leading universities, 1.90 FIVEFIVE 5 Nature charted institutions that published SOUTH KOREA more than 4,500 articles in 2015–17, and The University of Hong Kong whose papers were cited at least 30% Sungkyunkwan 1.84 more than the world average. University Citation impact: 1.56 = 1,000 Hong Kong Polytechnic 4 (World average = 1) publications University 1.73 Seoul National Taiwan University 1.47 3 Hong Kong TAIWAN Pohang University of National Tsing ININ ASIAASIA Science and Technology Hua University 1.46 1.65 2 Korea University National Taiwan University Spending (% GDP) 1.41 1.45

HONG KONG, MALAYSIA, Korea Advanced Institute Academia Sinica 1.37 1 of Science and Technology SINGAPORE, SOUTH 1.37

SOURCE: SCIVAL University of Ulsan SINGAPORE KOREA AND TAIWAN ARE 1.35 0 Agency for Science, INVESTING HEAVILY IN 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 Hanyang University Technology and Research RESEARCH AS AN 1.34 1.96 Malaysia Nanyang Technological BUSINESS VERSUS GOVERNMENT University ENGINE FOR GROWTH. MALAYSIA 1.84 Taiwan and South Korea’s R&D investment comes mainly from the business sector, and the proportions invested in basic research are accordingly lower. In Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong, University of Malaya National University of Singapore businesses provide around half the R&D nancing, more like the United States and United Kingdom. Singapore 1.37 BY RICHARD VAN NOORDEN 1.75 Business nanced Financed by government or higher education Other

Which economies invest the most in Taiwan research and development (R&D)? The South Korea answer might not be what you think. Singapore South Korea ploughs a whopping FEMALE RESEARCHERS ARTICLE OUTPUT CITATION IMPACT Malaysia 4.24% of its gross domestic product Female researchers are under-represented in South Korea’s research output had soared to Singapore and Hong Kong have stretched their (GDP) into science and technology — Hong Kong No data many Asian economies, as they are across the some 65,000 research articles in the Scopus lead over the United States and United Kingdom in world. But almost half of Malaysia’s researchers terms of the average scholarly impact of their Japan database last year. (By comparison, mainland neck and neck with Israel, and putting are female, and the United Nations says that China produced more than 414,000 articles and publications — with normalized citations far above much of Europe and the United States Mainland China Malaysia is a world leader in encouraging girls scientists in Japan published 89,000). Taiwan’s the world mean. One reason is that these and women to participate in science. output is dipping as a proportion of the world’s economies have very high rates of international to shame. Taiwan also invests heavily, United States beating science heavyweight Japan in research, but Malaysia’s volume is rising fast. collaboration, which is linked to increased citations. United Kingdom Business Government Higher education 2016 in terms of the share of its 2007 2017 World economy devoted to R&D. 0 20 40 60 80 100 0 5 10 15 20 25 average R&D spending (%) Spending on basic research 4 In East Asia, several science power- In data collected by (% of total R&D spending) Singapore houses are investing strongly in Malaysia Scopus, shown here, science. Although mainland China and Malaysia has SCIENCE WORKFORCE overtaken Hong Kong Hong Kong Japan get much of the attention here and Singapore. But — they are the area’s biggest econo- After mainland China and Japan, South Korea has the most researchers in East Asia — and Singapore 3 the Web of Science Malaysia has grown its science workforce to a point where it is now ahead of Singapore and database has them United mies and have giant scienti c workforc- Hong Kong. But in terms of researcher density, South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore stand out. all about level at Kingdom es — South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore about 0.8%. Taiwan and Hong Kong have established Hong Kong United States themselves as strong supporters of Singapore 2 research, and Malaysia is fast growing Malaysia South Taiwan its scienti c output. Korea Taiwan Mainland SOURCES; FEMALE RESEARCHERS: UNESCO/OECD; ARTICLE OUTPUT, CITATION IMPACT: SCIVAL IMPACT: CITATION ARTICLE OUTPUT, UNESCO/OECD; FEMALE RESEARCHERS: SOURCES; South Korea China

United Article output (% of world) Japan Kingdom 1 South Korea United States

Mainland China Japan Malaysia 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 Density of researchers Number of researchers 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 (per thousand population) (millions) Female researchers (%) 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 Citation impact

©2018 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts reserved. ©2018 Mac millan Publishers Li mited, part of Spri nger Nature. All ri ghts r28ese rJUNEved. 2018 | VOL 558 | NATURE | 501