U.S. Scientific Research Dominance Shrinking: Study

American scientists still lead the world in research, but a new analysis finds U.S. dominance is slowly shrinking and competitors are rising fast.

Research teams in the U.S. publish significantly more biomedical research discoveries than teams from other countries, as well as lead the world in research and development expenditures, according to a study published on Thursday in JCI Insight, a peer-reviewed journal that focuses on biomedical research. But an analysis of research articles published in 10 clinical and basic science journals between 2000 and 2015 revealed a steady decline in U.S.-originated work, with no significant change in mid-ranking journals.

"There is concern that stagnation in federal support for biomedical research in the U.S. could undermine the leading role the U.S. has played in biomedical and clinical research discoveries," a team of University of Michigan researchers said in the JCI article.

The U.S. accounted for 36.9 percent of research papers compiled by the analysts. That number eclipsed contributions from other countries by far, but marked a steady drop from 44.1 percent of the research output in 2000.

One competitor, though, rose noticeably among the ranks: China.

China, according to the analysis, has steadily increased its published work in both high- and mid-ranking journals. That growth aligns with the country's increased investment in research and development spending.

China ranked 14th for scientific research publication in 2000, with only 0.4 percent of the total high-impact article output, but by 2015 the country had risen to become the fourth-ranked country, with 1.4 percent of the total output. The U.K. ranked second and Germany third.

Here's a look at analysts' ranking of the the top five countries for biomedical research output in 2015:

Country	2015 Research Output Rank	2015 Output Percentage	Overall Best Countries Rank
United States	1	36.9	7
Great Britain	2	3.9	3
Germany	3	2.9	4
China	4	1.4	20
France	5	1.2	9
Japan	5	1.2	5