ditures in 1974 to approximately the same 

 level as 1961. 



D The number of research publications from 

 major fields of science increased generally 

 throughout the 1960's, but leveled off in 

 several fields in the early 1970's; publication 

 output in chemistry, engineering, and 

 physics, for example, has remained at a 

 nearly constant level in recent years. 



D Universities are by far the largest producers 

 of published research reports with some 75 

 percent of the total in 1973, followed by the 

 Federal Government and private industry 

 with approximately 10 percent each, and 

 other nonprofit institutions with 5 percent. 



D Basic research contributes increasingly to 

 technological innovation, as reflected by the 

 growing number of citations to research in 

 patents associated with major advances in 

 technology; the frequency of such citations 

 increased 17 percent between the 1950's and 

 1960's, while citations to other patents 

 declined by almost 25 percent. 



□ Research performed in universities is most 

 frequently cited as the origin of patented 

 technological advances, accounting for 

 almost 55 percent of the cited research in 

 recent years and replacing industry as the 

 prime sector in which such research is 

 performed. 



Basic research is the quest for fundamental 

 understanding of man and nature, in terms of 

 scientific observations, concepts, and theories. 

 Such research is generally motivated by curiosi- 

 ty and the desire to advance scientific 

 knowledge, with the opportunities for its 

 advancement determined primarily by the 

 existing state of scientific understanding itself, 

 rather than by practical need or potential 

 application. As an activity, this research ranges 

 from efforts of teams of scientists working with 

 large facilities such as particle accelerators to the 

 efforts of individual scientists using little or no 

 research equipment. And basic research, being 

 international in its nature, joins the activities of 

 scientists from many countries. ^ 



Although curiosity is frequently the prime 

 motive of the individual scientist for performing 

 research, potential applications often underlie 

 the private and public support of basic research. 

 There is as yet, however, no method for 

 correlating the cost of such research with its 

 total returns — intellectual, economic, and social. 

 But the many and varied uses of basic research 

 suggest that the benefits may be substantial, 

 particularly in comparison with the relatively 

 small investment involved. The findings of basic 

 research represent much of the objective 

 knowledge of the physical and social world 

 which forms a major part of the educational 



' For further discussion of international aspects of science, 

 see the chapter entitled, "International Indicators of Science 

 and Technology" in this report. 



curriculum of the general population, while both 

 the results and the conduct of such research 

 constitute the core of advanced education in the 

 sciences and engineering. Basic research 

 provides the fundamental knowledge on which 

 modern technology increasingly depends. This 

 research, in addition, supplies indispensable 

 knowledge for planning and directing the rest of 

 the R&D effort. Finally, the maintenance of a 

 wide spectrum of basic research can provide the 

 new knowledge needed for responding to 

 challenges in the future — challenges which may 

 not be foreseen at present. 



Indicators of the state of basic research 

 presented in this chapter consist largely of the 

 financial resources committed to research and 

 preliminary measures of outputs and their 

 application in industrial technology. The "input" 

 indicators provide information on national 

 expenditures for basic research, the extent of 

 research performed in universities and other 

 sectors, and trends in expenditures for basic 

 research in the various fields of science. "Out- 

 put" indicators include publications of scientific 

 research produced by different sectors in major 

 fields of science, and measures of the extent to 

 which such research underlies advances in 

 technology. 



The present set of indicators are deficient in a 

 number of major aspects. They do not encom- 

 pass substantive aspects of basic research, such 

 as advances in knowledge achieved in the various 

 scientific disciplines. The indicators, further- 



51 



