The August 15th 2013 Shanghai Academic Rankings of World Universities (ARWU) should leave policy makers wondering about whether the impressive growth experienced by 'latecomers in the industry' has moved hand-in-hand with contribution to knowledge by means of scientific publications. Against...

This seminal paper provides global empirical evidence on catch-up processes in scientific and technical publications. Its purpose is to model the future of scientific knowledge monopoly in order to understand whether the impressive growth experienced by latecomers in the industry has been...