How does a country get the biggest bang for its buck when it comes to science? Comparing science systems between countries can be a good way to see what’s working well and what’s not. But it’s difficult to do.

Want to speed up scientific progress? First understand how science policy works

Different countries analyse different things; relevant data can be hard to find or access; and the same concepts can be defined and measured in various ways.

Scientific outputs such as numbers of publications, citations and patents are easy to quantify. But they say little about what factors influenced them. Standardized statistics published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), for example on investments, allow for easy comparisons between countries. But these measurements are not enough to analyse the intertwined effects that different approaches to funding, running institutions and supporting researchers can have over time.…