Geographical distribution of high-novelty research

In this study, trial analyses using bibliometric approaches were performed to investigate the geographical distribution of high-novelty research. Data on approximately 2.55 million academic papers published in 2021 were examined as a pilot to show worldwide statistical data on novelty research. A combinatorial novelty indicator measuring units comprising paired reference papers was adopted in the analyses. This study shows the main three results: the top 20 countries/regions in the top 10% of high-novelty papers, the share of the top 10% high-novelty papers in each country/region, and the share of the top 10% high-novelty papers by field in China and the United States, which contribute globally to the top 10% of high-novelty papers.