States invest heavily in academic research with the expectation that these efforts will advance scientific knowledge, support innovative industries, and strengthen local talent pipelines. Comparing research performance across state lines is difficult due to differences in academic landscapes: some may have large medical schools with high-cost labs, while others have research-active public universities in lower-cost fields or are more pedagogically focused.
States invest heavily in academic research with the expectation that these efforts will advance scientific knowledge, support innovative industries, and strengthen local talent pipelines. Comparing research performance across state lines is difficult due to differences in academic landscapes: some may have large medical schools with high-cost labs, while others have research-active public universities in lower-cost fields or are more pedagogically focused.
Article output is one way of measuring academic research. This edition of Useful Stats standardizes science and engineering (S&E) article output for peer-reviewed documents (e.g., articles, reviews, and conference proceedings) published in refereed scientific journals at the state level by two complementary numerators. These numerators showcase different facets of academic research productivity: output per million dollars of academic S&E R&D spending, and per 1,000 science, engineering, and health (SEH) doctorate holders employed in academia. Although similar, each highlights a distinct part of the research ecosystem, with one reflecting the intensity of research spending and the other the publishing activity of academic researchers themselves.
