Identifying the causal paths leading to the peripheral position in the world’s scientific system (A fuzzy-sets qualitative comparative analysis)

The four main objectives of the study are: 1- Identifying the countries’ position in the world’s scientific system; 2- Identifying the necessary conditions for the peripheral position; 3- Identifying the causal paths leading to the peripheral position; 4- Description of ways to improve the peripheral position. The research was based on network analysis and fuzzy-sets qualitative comparative analysis. The data were secondary and were collected based on the theoretical model of research from international databases and different data sets for the period 2002-2017. The number of country-year observations was 2644. The countries’ position analysis in the world’s scientific system indicated that in 2002, nearly 82% of countries were in the peripheral position, of which only 7% were promoted to the semi-peripheral position during the studied period. The analysis of the necessary conditions showed that low exported value and weak exchange of international students are necessary to be placed in a peripheral position, but none of them alone lead to a peripheral position. Other conditions were liberal democracy, government effectiveness, human development, social similarity, English language, and dependence on colonial relations. The sufficient analysis indicated that the combination of low exported value and weak exchange of international students leads to a peripheral position in the world’s scientific system. Drawing the phase space of the upgraded countries showed that Singapore's position improved through increasing exported value. However, countries such as Iran, South Africa, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Colombia have achieved the same outcome through increasing international student exchange. Romania is the only country whose position improvement was due to an increase in both conditions. The change of peripheral position to semi-peripheral often coincides with a qualitative change in the social system, which is the product of changing elements of the economic or social subsystems or both.