WASHINGTON, Feb. 18 (UPI) -- Changes in world research activity will soon make the United States a major partner but not the dominant science and technology leader, a U.S. researcher says.
The United States could profit from a global shift if it adopts a policy of knowledge sharing with the growing world community of researchers, Caroline Wagner, a Penn State professor of international affairs, says.
"What is emerging is a global science system in which the (United States) will be one player among many," she says.
The share of world research papers published by U.S. researchers dropped 20 percent from 1996 to 2008, a Penn State release reported Friday. The trend was due more to exponentially increasing research activities in developing countries such as China and India, rather than a drop in U.S. research efforts, Wagner says.
Spending more money on research may not restore American pre-eminence in science and technology, she says.
"Some consider America's loss in the 'numbers game' in research to be a scary scenario, but the answer may not be in spending more money," Wagner says. "The system may be operating at full capacity -- and the law of diminishing returns exists in science just as it does in other sectors."
Wagner recommends the United States rely on a more efficient knowledge-sharing strategy by tapping experts from other countries with more knowledge and better skills than U.S. researchers have in certain fields, while other nations would, in turn, have access to U.S. scientists to conduct research in fields where they are most proficient.
