Global reach, regional strength: Spatial patterns of a big science facility

The European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), a leading facility in synchrotron science, plays a crucial role in supporting both the local and the international scientific community by providing advanced instrumentation for their research. However, our understanding of the actual reach of the facility and its spatial dynamics remains limited. Thus, a methodology is proposed where author affiliation links are processed, analyzed, and visualized. A case study that focuses on the ESRF is implemented, where the author affiliation links of 17,870 publications over the period 2011–2021 are processed, revealing 76,850 addresses, of which 11,120 are unique locations. The results of the case study bring to light robust patterns of increased internationalization over time, accompanied by regional agglomeration and the emergence of potential research hotspots. The methodology and results are likely to be of interest to researchers in Spatial Scientometrics, which addresses some of the current challenges in the field. Managers, funders, and policy-makers can utilize this method or similar approaches to enrich impact analyses of large-scale science facilities, vital for insuring their sustained support. The code for the methodology, as well as the interactive visualizations, is freely available on GitHub for further exploration and replication of the methodology.