There are a number of reasons why some countries publish more
than others but it is no real surprise that the USA produces the
most scientific papers. Over the period 1999-2009 there were 2.9
million scientific papers published in the USA according to
Essential Science Indicators at Thomson Reuters (see
infographic) (http://sciencewatch.com/dr/cou/2009/09decALL/).
This is considerably more than the next two countries in the top
20 list, Japan and Germany, who each produced a respectable 0.8
million scientific papers. It is also worth mentioning the three
countries that just missed the top 20 list:, Scotland, Denmark
and Israel. These small countries have managed to punch above
their weight, producing 0.1 million science papers each over the
ten year period. To investigate the reasons behind these figures
it would be necessary to compare a number of different factors
between the top 20 countries including science funding,
population size, GDP, education levels, facilities and language
advantages. Perhaps more