The bioinformatics wealth of nations

We quantify scientific output for bioinformatics across the world, using a range of bibliometric indices. The most prolific 40 countries generate 96% of all publications in the field, a fact also reflected in the number of citations and the country h-index. Remarkably, 30 of these countries have also been found to generate >98% of the world’s top-cited publications. Smaller, productive countries attain a higher status when bibliometric indices are normalized for population size, without altering the overall picture. These ‘productivity’ patterns can be used for planning local, regional or international initiatives and a more effective development of the field.Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.