A new report on the health of Russian research says the former giant of science is stumbling badly.

Produced by Thomson Reuters, the report is the last in a series on the BRIC group – Brazil, Russia, India, and China. But while the other BRIC countries received generally optimistic report cards, Russia’s review makes grim reading.

“Russia has been a leader in scientific research and intellectual thinking across Europe and the world for so long that it comes not only as a surprise but a shock to see that it has a small and dwindling share of world activity as well as real attrition of its core strengths,” write report authors Jonathan Adams and Christopher King. “…Russia’s research base has a problem, and it shows little sign of a solution.”

Using data on journal articles published worldwide, the report’s authors note that over a recent five year period Russia produced 2.6% of the world’s papers. This is more than Brazil (2.1%) but less than India (2.9%) and China (8.4%). Even in areas of traditional strength, such as physical and space science, the total number of papers published recently by Russia has declined.

Worse, the relative growth of these countries (defined as change against their 1981 paper output) shows increases for China, Brazil and India. Russia’s relative growth is flat, and indeed drops off slightly in recent years.

As the report notes, many previous studies have also found problems with Russia’s science base. The average age of members of the Russian Academy of Science is now pushing 50, the best institutes have budgets a fraction of their rivals in the US and in 2009 a number of ex-pat scientists warned of a pending collapse in Russian science.

Adams and King see some positive signs in the fact that Russia remains “rich in intellectual resources and talent” and that the country is still plugged into international collaborations. However, the most telling fact in the report is perhaps this one:

The UK Government’s annual report on the international comparative performance of the UK research base has historically included a focus on Russia as a member of the G8 group of leading research economies. But, in 2008, Russia disappeared from the report’s graphs and was replaced by China.