Science and Engineering Indicators is a term referring to efforts to measure the pursuit, support, and performance of science and engineering on scales that geographically extend from the local to the international. Their goal is usually to help direct policy programs in research, education, and industrial support.. The most prominent and celebrated of these is Science and Engineering Indicators (referred from here on as Indicators) published every two years in the United States by the National Science Board (NSB). NSB is the body that oversees the budget and policies of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the report itself is prepared by NSF's Science and Resources Directorate.

As an NSF publication, Indicators was conceived after Congress, in 1968, broadened the NSF Charter to include more engineering and social sciences in the agency's support portfolio. Legislators desired a sense of the impact government support...