France is the third publishing country in mathematics, behind China and the United States. France is strongly specialized in mathematics. Besides, French researchers in mathematics are internationally recognized with prestigious prizes. Between 1936 and 2014, French doctorate holders were awarded 14 such prizes (Fields medal, Abel, Gauss or Wolff prizes). France is second ex aequo with Russia on this measure, behind the United States (40). Yet, bibliometric impact indicators measure a less outstanding performance. For example the French share of the 1% most cited publications, at 5.5%, is lower than its share of publications in the discipline. This paper explores this uneven performance of France when different indicators are being used. In order to do so, it compares different corpora. It first shows that French performance in mathematics is driven by its stronger results in fundamental mathematics. It then compares results in two selective corpora. It finally discusses the profile...Show moreFrance is the third publishing country in mathematics, behind China and the United States. France is strongly specialized in mathematics. Besides, French researchers in mathematics are internationally recognized with prestigious prizes. Between 1936 and 2014, French doctorate holders were awarded 14 such prizes (Fields medal, Abel, Gauss or Wolff prizes). France is second ex aequo with Russia on this measure, behind the United States (40). Yet, bibliometric impact indicators measure a less outstanding performance. For example the French share of the 1% most cited publications, at 5.5%, is lower than its share of publications in the discipline. This paper explores this uneven performance of France when different indicators are being used. In order to do so, it compares different corpora. It first shows that French performance in mathematics is driven by its stronger results in fundamental mathematics. It then compares results in two selective corpora. It finally discusses the profile and performance of French publications within the field of Statistics & Probability. The last section draws conclusions and suggests further research.Show less
