Which cities produce worldwide more excellent papers than can be expected? A new mapping approach--using Google Maps--based on statistical significance testing

[francisco@icmc.usp.br]

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http://arxiv.org/abs/1103.3216

Which cities produce worldwide more excellent papers than can be expected?
A new mapping approach--using Google Maps--based on statistical
significance testing

The methods presented in this paper allow for a spatial analysis revealing
centers of excellence around the world using programs that are freely
available. Based on Web of Science data, field-specific excellence can be
identified in cities where highly-cited papers were published. Compared to
the mapping approaches published hitherto, our approach is more
analytically oriented by allowing the assessment of an observed number of
excellent papers for a city against the expected number. With this
feature, this approach can not only identify the top performers in output
but the "true jewels." These are cities locating authors who publish
significantly more top cited papers than can be expected. As the examples
in this paper show for physics, chemistry, and psychology, these cities do
not necessarily have a high output of excellent papers.