Papers written by Nobel Prize winners in physics before they won the prize: an analysis of their language and journal of publication

• Published in: Scientometrics Vol. 93; no. 3; pp. 1151 - 1163
• Main Authors: Ma, Caifeng, Su, Cheng, Yuan, Junpeng, Wu, Yishan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.12.2012; Springer
• Subjects: Bibliometrics. Scientometrics; Bibliometrics. Scientometrics. Evaluation; Computer Science; Exact sciences and technology; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Information Storage and Retrieval; Languages; Library and information science. General aspects; Library Science; Physics; Prizes; Scholarly publishing; Science Citation Index; Sciences and techniques of general use; English journal; Journal language; Mother-tongue journal; Scientific language; Citation analysis; Periodical; Scientific research
• ISSN: 0138-9130; 1588-2861
• DOI: 10.1007/s11192-012-0748-z

In this paper, we analyzed data relating to the language of papers written by winners of Nobel Prizes in physics before they won the prize and their journals of publication, and we identified the change in scientific language corresponding with shifts of the center of the scientific world. Using the science citation index as the main data source, we also collected information on the distribution of prize-winning scientists by country, by each scientist’s number of published papers, and by language. We then analyzed their papers in terms of the different journals based in different countries. The results are presented in three parts: (1) the main languages used in the papers are English and German. The proportion of papers in English is gradually increasing, while that of papers in German is decreasing. (2) The prize winning scientists’ papers have been published mainly in journals in their own nation and in the United States. (3) Journals based in their own countries are very helpful to these scientists early in their careers.