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Absolute and Relative Declines in National Institutes of Health (NIH) Funded Basic Science Publications

Lauer, M. S.

2025-07-16 scientific communication and education
10.1101/2025.07.15.664939 bioRxiv
Show abstract

An analysis of over 2.2 million NIH-funded research papers published between 1990 and 2024 reveals that there have been marked declines in the relative and absolute numbers of basic-science oriented publications. In 1990, nearly 60% of NIH-funded publications reported on basic science, with that proportion declining to 24% in 2024. The absolute number of basic science publications increased after the NIH budget doubling of 1998-2023, but at a slower rate than for human-focused publications. After the 2011-2013 budget shocks, the absolute number of basic science publications declined. These data support concerns about the long-term trajectory of NIHs support for basic science.

Matching journals

The top 5 journals account for 50% of the predicted probability mass.

1
PLOS ONE
● 4510 papers in training set
Top 6%
23.0%
2
FASEB BioAdvances
○ 15 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
12.8%
3
Scientific Reports
○ 3102 papers in training set
Top 12%
7.3%
4
eLife
● 5422 papers in training set
Top 13%
6.5%
5
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B
● 51 papers in training set
Top 0.7%
5.0%
50% of probability mass above
6
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Top 3%
2.8%
7
F1000Research
○ 79 papers in training set
Top 0.8%
2.7%
8
The FEBS Journal
○ 78 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
2.7%
9
PLOS Biology
● 408 papers in training set
Top 6%
2.1%
10
FEBS Letters
○ 42 papers in training set
Top 0.1%
1.9%
11
Genomics, Proteomics & Bioinformatics
◐ 171 papers in training set
Top 3%
1.8%
12
Journal of Cellular Physiology
○ 21 papers in training set
Top 0.2%
1.7%
13
Heliyon
○ 146 papers in training set
Top 2%
1.7%
14
Scientific Data
○ 174 papers in training set
Top 1%
1.7%
15
Archives of Clinical and Biomedical Research
○ 28 papers in training set
Top 0.9%
1.5%
16
PeerJ
◐ 261 papers in training set
Top 9%
1.4%
17
Nature Biotechnology
○ 147 papers in training set
Top 5%
1.3%
18
Vaccines
○ 196 papers in training set
Top 2%
1.0%
19
FEBS Open Bio
○ 29 papers in training set
Top 0.4%
0.9%
20
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
● 2130 papers in training set
Top 40%
0.9%
21
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● 389 papers in training set
Top 8%
0.9%
22
Royal Society Open Science
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Top 4%
0.9%
23
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
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Top 6%
0.9%
24
Frontiers in Public Health
○ 140 papers in training set
Top 7%
0.9%
25
BMJ Open
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Top 12%
0.8%
26
Frontiers in Psychology
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Top 1%
0.8%
27
Clinical Microbiology and Infection
○ 60 papers in training set
Top 1%
0.8%
28
Emerging Infectious Diseases
● 103 papers in training set
Top 3%
0.8%
29
JAMA Network Open
● 127 papers in training set
Top 4%
0.8%
30
Nature Human Behaviour
○ 85 papers in training set
Top 5%
0.7%