“The indicators included in Science and Engineering Indicators
2010 derive from a variety of national, international, public, and private sources and may not be strictly comparable in a statistical sense. As noted in the text, some data are weak, and the metrics and models relating them to each other and to economic and social outcomes invite further development. Thus, the emphasis is on broad trends; individual data points and findings should be interpreted with care. The overview focuses on the trend in the United States and many other parts of the world toward the development of more knowledge-intensive economies, in which research, its commercial exploitation, and other intellectual work play a growing role. Industry and government play key roles in
these changes. The overview examines how these U.S. science and
technology (S&T) patterns and trends affect the position of the United States, using broadly comparable data wherever possible for the United States, the European Union (EU), Japan, China, and selected other Asian economies (the Asia-9: India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Taiwan, and Vietnam).”