Citation Bias in the Physical Sciences at the National Scale

The “science” system exemplifies an intricate paradigm of a complex system. As the international landscape transitions from a unipolar to a multipolar configuration, science and technology have emerged as pivotal instruments for nations, representing crucial determinants of the trajectory of global modernization. Conventional research often sole concentrations on the quantity of citations garnered and individual-level scientific analyses. Nevertheless, the act of citing is of paramount significance, and a comprehensive examination at the national level can provide a more accurate gauge of a country's scientific engagement and its influence. In this article, we utilize data from the American Physical Society (APS) to scrutinize national citation patterns from both the citing and cited perspectives, integrating metrics such as the deviation index from scaling laws. Our findings indicate that the aggregate volume of publications across different nations conforms to a robust power-law correlation with both the total number of citations exerted and the total number of citations accrued. Furthermore, these correlations have exhibited consistent stability over temporal intervals. Within the domain of physics, citation patterns are influenced by the principles of cumulative advantage and the “Matthew effect,” with these influences intensifying as time progresses. Global academic exchanges manifest a synchronous and interconnected nature, with scientific endeavors being shaped by externalities, notably including large-scale events like public health emergencies and economic downturns. Developed countries tend to exhibit a more responsive and volatile reaction to these external factors.