Just five richer nations — the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, China and France — represent almost half of the contributions to north–south collaborative articles published in Nature Index natural-science journals from 2015 to 2022.
India — a relatively developed country — has by far the biggest Share for global-south nations. Its output in these collaborative articles makes up one-quarter of its total Share in the index between 2015 and 2022. This is a stark contrast with Africa as a region, where 42 nations together have a Share that is less than one-fifth of India’s for these north–south collaborations.
Ukraine is the only European nation to appear in the north–south data as a global-south country owing to it being a lower middle-income country. World Bank income groups were used to define countries as global north or south (see ‘A guide to the Nature Index’ for more information).
Source: Nature Index. Data analysis by Bo Wu. Infographic by Simon Baker, Bec Crew and Tanner Maxwell.
Source: Nature Index. Data analysis by Bo Wu. Infographic by Simon Baker, Bec Crew and Tanner Maxwell.
Apart from India and Vietnam (see ‘Concentrated connections’), all other Asia–Pacific countries in the global-south category contribute a Share of 158 to north–south collaborations. Bangladesh, the Philippines and Nepal have the highest Shares.
Source: Nature Index. Data analysis by Bo Wu. Infographic by Simon Baker, Bec Crew and Tanner Maxwell.
Iran and Pakistan are the biggest contributors to north–south collaborations among global-south nations in western Asia (see ‘Concentrated connections’). Iran’s Share in such articles is almost five times larger than the eight other global-south countries in the region that appear in the data set.
Source: Nature Index. Data analysis by Bo Wu. Infographic by Simon Baker, Bec Crew and Tanner Maxwell.
Egypt contributes a Share of 93 to north–south collaborative articles, the largest for African global-south nations (see ‘Concentrated connections’). The Share for the rest of Africa is 377, but this covers 42 countries.
Source: Nature Index. Data analysis by Bo Wu. Infographic by Simon Baker, Bec Crew and Tanner Maxwell.
Only four global-south countries in the Americas appear in the north–south data. Most countries in Latin America are in higher World Bank income groups, so are categorized as global-north nations.
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