Of the four major regions of the United States, only the South boosted its share of scientific papers during the last decade. According to data for the period 1980-89 obtained from the Philadelphia-based Institute for Scientific Information's on-line database, the Science Citation Index, the South mustered a 3 percent increase from the first half to the second half of the 1980s.
The Southern region of the U.S. upped its share of U.S. science papers from 34 percent in the period 1980-84 to 37 percent in 1985-89. Specifically, the East South Central region, which comprises Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, increased its share by 2 percent. The South Atlantic region, which includes West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, added 1 percent to its share. The other three regions - Northeast, West, and Midwest - more or less held their places in ...