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ABSTRACT
A region’s science output depends on several spatial factors. A generalized least squares function with random effects was estimated to gauge the impact of such factors in European NUTS2 regions. The main findings are that output is positively associated with the number of researchers in higher education institutions and negatively associated with the Herfindahl index of disciplinary specialization. Regions with old universities and good accessibility are also more productive, but these effects are mostly limited to Europe’s core. Most leading science regions are in western or northern Europe. They combine large agglomerations of university scientists, disciplinary diversity, old university traditions, and good interregional accessibility.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1. The Web of Science employs rigorous quality criteria for the inclusion of journals such as the rigour of the peer review process and measures of the organizational and geographical diversity of editorial board members and published authors. It is thus more effective at excluding so-called ‘predatory journals’ than the broader Scopus index of scientific publications.
2. Most of the missing data problems at the NUTS2 level of observation concerned USCI. Noting the relative stability of this variable in regions with observations for all years in the 2001–2013 time period, we decided to use a fixed quantity that corresponds to the year with the greatest number of regional observations, 2011, or, in isolated cases, 2010 or 2012. Data availability issues relating to this variable also explains the exclusion of six small EU countries and some Belgian regions from the analysis.
3. Most observations in D. E. Andersson et al. (Citation2020) were in three large and two mid-sized countries where they analyzed all rather than a subset of regions: France, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, and Sweden.