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German science has overtaken British science for the first time, according
to a new survey of research papers published in leading journals. While
the impact of German papers increased in the 1980s, papers from Britain
became less important. By 1989, researchers cited German papers more often
than British ones.

In an attempt to measure the quality of papers, the Institute for Scientific
Information in Philadelphia calculated the average number of times each
paper was cited in other papers. Despite the language barrier – most leading
journals are in English and English-speakers rarely read German journals
– German papers outstripped their British counterparts.

‘Science papers from the UK have been slipping,’ says David Pendlebury,
editor of ISI’s newsletter, ScienceWatch. ‘We see signs of the downturn
especially in the period 1984-88.’

The survey will make grim reading for Kenneth Clarke, the Cabinet minister
responsible for science. The status of British science dominated the science
debate in the House of Commons last month. Clarke said then that: ‘There
is no evidence that the quality of scientific work done in this country
is inferior to that done in any of our rival and competitor nations.’

The survey also contradicts the idea that science in the US is in decline.
Last January, Leon Lederman, the new president of the American Association
for the Advancement of Science, said science was showing signs of stress.
But the ISI survey shows that the quality of research has increased in the
US more than in any other country.

John Irvine, head of Science Policy Research Consultants and one of
the authors of the original research on citations which crystallised concern
for British science in the early 1980s, says British scientists may be suffering
from ‘the publish or perish syndrome’. With funding in short supply, researchers
feel they have to publish often to win grants. ‘It may be that they are
not producing the same quality of work,’ he says.

John Argyris, director of the computer applications department at the
University of Stuttgart in Germany, was one of the group British Å®ÉúСÊÓƵs
Abroad who complained of a decline in British science to the Prime Minister,
John Major, last month. ‘Britain has gone downhill,’ he says. ‘When I was
at Imperial College we could afford to be scientists. Now people cannot.’