Twenty-first century macro-trends in the institutional fabric of science: bibliometric monitoring and analysis

Some say that world science has become more `applied', or at least more `application-oriented', in recent years. Replacing the ill-defined distinction between `basic research' and `applied research', we introduce `research application orientation' domains as an alternative conceptual and analytical framework for examining research output growth patterns. To distinguish possible developmental trajectories we define three institutional domains: `university', `industry', `hospitals'. Our macro-level bibliometric analysis takes a closer look at general trends within and across some 750 of the world's largest research-intensive universities. To correct for database changes, our time-series analysis was applied to both a fixed journal set (same research journals and conference proceedings over time) and a dynamic journal set (changing set of publication outlets). We find that output growth in the `hospital research orientation' has significantly outpaced the other two application domains, especially since 2006/2007. This happened mainly because of the introduction of new publication outlets in the WoS, but also partially because some universities--especially in China--seem to have become more visible in this domain. Our analytical approach needs further broadening and deepening to provide a more definitive answer whether hospitals and the medical sector are becoming increasingly dominant as a domain of scientific knowledge production and an environment for research applications.