  While scientific performance is an important aspect of a stable and healthy
economy, measures for it have yet to gain their place in economic country
profiles. As useful indicators for this performance dimension, this paper
introduces the concept of milestones for research excellence, as points of
transition to higher-level contributions at the leading edge of science. The
proposed milestones are based on two indicators associated with research
excellence, the impact vitality profile and the production of review type
publications, both applied to a country's publications in the top journals
Nature and Science. The milestones are determined for two distinct groups of
emerging market economies: the BRIC countries, which outperformed the relative
growth expected at their identification in 2001, and the N-11 or Next Eleven
countries, identified in 2005 as potential candidates for a BRIC-like
evolution. Results show how these two groups at different economic levels can
be clearly distinguished based on the research milestones, indicating a
potential utility as parameters in an economic context.
