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Mapping scientific cosmopolitanism: scientists with publication records substantially split across multiple countries

Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: ABSTRACT We used Scopus data on 243,949 top-cited scientists to map scientific cosmopolitanism, defined as having at least two different countries that contribute alone at least 10% of an author’s published record as indexed in Scopus. 49,707 (20.38%) of the top-cited authors were cosmopolitan based on this definition. Based on current author affiliation, rates varied widely (9-76%) across countries with at least 250 top-cited authors with lowest rates in Japan (9%), USA (12%) and Iran (13%). Countries with few top-cited authors had almost always high rates of cosmopolitanism. The proportion of top-cited authors who are cosmopolitan has steadily increased over time in younger generations among those who started publishing after 1965 reaching 43% recently. Large differences were also seen across scientific subfields (1% in General Psychology & Cognitive Sciences to 46% in Econometrics). Among the 100 pairs of countries that were the most commonly expected, the observed to expected ratio ranged from 6.44 for Switzerland-Germany to 0.13 for Italy-Japan. Across the 30 country pairs that were most over-represented, countries shared borders, languages, most common religion pairs, or any of these features in 15, 19, 26, and 29 cases, respectively. The map of cosmopolitan authors reveals a large and increasing proportion of the most influential scientists who share two or more scientific homes that each has made a substantial contribution to their career. Cosmopolitanism among scientists requires better study to help facilitate its potential positive contributions not only to individual scientists but to science and society more broadly.
DOI: 10.64898/2026.10.01.755970
Language: English
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7220718060
Cites: 1
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Related to: 10