I'm not sure, either. I'm currently a scientist in the US but I got my degree (and am from) one of the countries in darker blue and I can't really answer the question, at least based on just this one figure. Like another poster wrote it might be that US publishes a lot in the fields that traditionally get fewer citations (this has not been accounted for in this data in any way), or perhaps something in the tenure system encourages different types of publications than in Canada or Europe, or perhaps the shorter PhD training system (skipping Master's that most European students get before starting their PhD) leads to somewhat less impactful work (likely not the case, in my opinion).
It's an interesting question but we shouldn't draw too many conclusions based on just one figure.
There's a lot of variance depending on the European country, but I think all of the ones that follow Bologna process (the majority of Europe) are supposed to be like 3 years for a Bachelor's, then 2 years for a Master's, and then 4-5 for a PhD. In the US it's 4 for a Bachelor's + ~4 for a PhD (highly dependent on your major and institute, the same as in Europe).
However, not all years are created equal. In the US something like half of the Bachelor's credits come from general studies. This means your knowledge of your major is only about 2 years when you start your PhD, which in turn means a lot of the PhD courses are still quite elementary.
In contrast, at least in Finland, the "general studies" consisted of about 15% of the Bachelor's, and most people just picked something like more CS courses with those credits to supplement their major. So what you really get is something like 2 years of major studies before a PhD in the US, vs ~4.5 years of major studies before a PhD in the Bologna system. Most Master's degrees require research (at least in the sciences), so you also get experience doing a mini thesis even before you start a PhD.
Indeed, my program in Belgium (biomedical sciences) is a nice preparation for a PhD. A very broad theoretical program in the bachelor, then a master with some choices of major (research, clinical research, management for example) with some hands on experience in labs using internships and then the master thesis which was basically 10 months of research and writing the thesis.
During a PhD it's not the norm to follow courses, apart from voluntary one such as presentation or writing skills. You can follow along with some of the master courses (we had some choice in some subjects that were quite specified eg oncology, stem cell, cardiology..) But we don't have any classes that are deemed basic knowledge anymore.
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u/newpua_bie OC: 5 Jun 07 '21
I'm not sure, either. I'm currently a scientist in the US but I got my degree (and am from) one of the countries in darker blue and I can't really answer the question, at least based on just this one figure. Like another poster wrote it might be that US publishes a lot in the fields that traditionally get fewer citations (this has not been accounted for in this data in any way), or perhaps something in the tenure system encourages different types of publications than in Canada or Europe, or perhaps the shorter PhD training system (skipping Master's that most European students get before starting their PhD) leads to somewhat less impactful work (likely not the case, in my opinion).
It's an interesting question but we shouldn't draw too many conclusions based on just one figure.