A framework for assessing a country’s scientific productivity based on published articles by scientists affiliated with that country

Purpose This study aims to propose a framework to assess the scientific productivity performance of a country in terms of its international visibility and national capabilities. Design/methodology/approach In a given subject, all publications with at least one author from the target country as well as the received citations are counted as quantitative and qualitative indicators, respectively. The ratios of these counts to their expected values, which are estimated according to the global gross domestic product (GDP) and population percentages of the country are used to assess international visibility. Also, in certain publications, all authors are from the target country, therefore, their publication and citation proportions are provided as metrics of national competence. Findings As a sample, this study analyzes Turkey’s performance in “Business, Economics & Management” and “Engineering & Computer Science” in the top 20 publication venues of the regarding subject areas according to Google Scholar Metrics taxonomy. This study shows that in some subfields, Turkey’s performance is 2.73–6 times as per expectations. This study also provides the international visibility assessment of all countries for the past two decades in “Theoretical Computer Science” which shows that Israel is a leading country based on this framework. Originality/value This paper introduces new indices to evaluate a country’s national competence and international visibility on a subject field based on the number of published papers affiliated with the country and their citations by considering the global GDP and population share.