Recent trends in the global landscape of scientific publishing

Scientific publishing has undergone substantial transformation over the past decade, driven by factors such as globalization, expansion of the research system, and new publishing models. This study examines recent trends in the global landscape of scientific publishing, with a focus on structural changes in publication output, international collaboration, and citation and reference patterns across countries and regions. The analysis is based on bibliometric data from Web of Science and OpenAlex. The presentation will focus on some overall trends the recent 10 years (2016-2025) on the following topics: Growth in publication volume: (i) overall growth in global publication volume over time, (ii) how this growth is distributed across major countries, including the Nordic countries, and (iii) how it varies by journal ranks as defined in the Norwegian publication model (Level 1 and Level 2). Changes in reference and citation patterns: (i) changes in reference length (i.e. average number of references per publication, and ii) developments in citation impact. Both dimensions will be analysed globally and across major countries, including the Nordic. Trends in international collaboration: Using data on international co-authorship we analyse international collaboration globally and across major countries, including the Nordic. The broad overview offers an empirical basis for discussing implications for national research policy and bibliometric monitoring.