The Geography of Scientific Citation

As the marketplace for research and education becomes ever more global, there is growing interest in international comparisons of standards and quality in different countries and places. Rankings of universities according to various criteria ranging from the quality of the educational experience imparted to their research prowess have become regular news items in English-speaking countries. In some countries such as the UK where the core funding of universities is from central government, such assessments are now used routinely for resource allocation.