  Nations can be distinguished in terms of whether domestic or international
research is cited. We analyzed the research output in natural sciences of three
leading European research economies (Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK) and
ask where their researchers look for the knowledge that underpins their most
highly-cited papers. Is one internationally oriented or is citation limited to
national resources? Do the citation patterns reflect a growing differentiation
between the domestic and international research enterprise? To evaluate change
over time, we include natural-sciences papers published in the countries from
three publication years: 2004, 2009, and 2014. The results show that articles
co-authored by researchers from Germany or the Netherlands are less likely to
be among the globally most highly-cited articles if they also cite "domestic"
research (i.e. research authored by authors from the same country). To put this
another way, less well-cited research is more likely to stand on domestic
shoulders and research that becomes more highly-cited is more likely to stand
on international shoulders. A possible reason for the results is that
researchers "over-cite" the papers from their own country - lacking the focus
on quality in citing. However, these differences between domestic and
international shoulders are not visible for the UK.
