Third world countries (TWC) research publications by disciplines: A country-by-country citation analysis

This paper discusses the publications of Third World Countries (TWC) in the Science Citation Index by disciplines. TWC documents which were nationally cross-linked at least 20 times were identified and their citing documents categorised into seven disciplines. The top 12 TWC are discussed vis-a-vis their population, Gross National Product, and the extent of participation using observed rates of contribution in each discipline and expected rates based on numbers of citations received. Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and Chile, appeared most frequently in the top five ranks in each of the seven disciplines; however, none of these countries had neither the largest population nor the highest GNP per capita. Overall observed rates exceeded expected rates in all but two disciplines: Biomedicine and Agriculture. Physics & Engineering had the highest overall observed rate with the top five TWC exceeding the overall and their individual expected rates. Brazil and Venezuela led by exceeding their expected rates in four of the seven disciplines.