Open research questions in International Science and Diplomacy

What the literature leaves open

• Research funding drives institutional change within national science systems (NSS), yet its specific effects remain underexplored—especially in small, maturing systems.

  Research funding, science production, and international collaborations: Luxembourg’s maturing national science system · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should investigate the role of Structural Intelligence in scientific inquiry, particularly in cases where experimental contact begins to outrun a successful theory. It should explore the implications of the paper's findings for our understanding of scientific revision and the importance of answerable revision.

  When Reality Outruns Theory: Physics as a Formal Neighbor to Structural Intelligence · 2026 · DOI

• The paper identifies a gap in our understanding of how scientific intelligence looks like when experimental contact begins to outrun a successful theory, but no final replacement is yet justified. It highlights the need for a new perspective on the role of Structural Intelligence in scientific inquiry.

  When Reality Outruns Theory: Physics as a Formal Neighbor to Structural Intelligence · 2026 · DOI

• Finally, the hardest open problem in Maldacena's program, the extension of holographic duality to de Sitter space, the actual spacetime of the universe with positive cosmological constant, finds a jurisdictional resolution: the asymptotic boundary that AdS provides does not exist in de Sitter, but the observer's jurisdictional now Ω(O,t), formalized in Eq.

  Addendum XXV — Closing Maldacena's Gap: Islands Find Their Physical Mechanism, ER=EPR Finds Its Formal Derivation, and de Sitter Space Finds Its Holographic Dual in the Observer's Jurisdictional Now · 2026 · DOI

• This addendum formalizes the correspondence between the Theory of Subjection (Rodrigues, 2026) and the scientific program of Juan Maldacena (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton), addressing three open problems that remain beyond what AdS/CFT specifies.

  Addendum XXV — Closing Maldacena's Gap: Islands Find Their Physical Mechanism, ER=EPR Finds Its Formal Derivation, and de Sitter Space Finds Its Holographic Dual in the Observer's Jurisdictional Now · 2026 · DOI

• There is a need to consider the International Union of Crystallography's input into Open Science activities. The practical landscape in which crystallographers work needs to be discussed.

  Crystallography in Open Science and its open educational resources · 2026 · DOI

• First, the identity of Tuck's correspondent at the Army Engineering School at Fort Belvoir remains unknown due to FOIA redaction under exemption (b)(6). Open Questions and Recommended Next Steps The Tuck letter opens as many questions as it closes.

  The Tuck Letter (1970): Early Official Interest in Atmospheric Vortex Phenomena and Its Implications for Quantum Gravitodiamagnetic Hypotheses · 2026 · DOI

• The paper suggests future research directions including testing the Primer Mechanism in different domains. The paper proposes testing the mechanism in lab pumps, weather models, and biomechanics.

  The Primer Mechanism · 2026 · DOI

• The gap is the lack of a universal law that applies across multiple domains. The paper argues that the Primer Mechanism fills this gap.

  The Primer Mechanism · 2026 · DOI

• The AI system's lack of memory between sessions. The statistical structure that produces certain responses predictably more likely. The complexity of the physical phenomena being investigated.

  Complete Catalog of Analysis Errors Committed by AI System in the Investigation of the Interaction Field : Twelve Identified and Corrected Failure Modes, the Permanent Norms Derived from Each, and the Record of Issues Closed in Both Directions · 2026 · DOI

• Future research should focus on developing AI systems that can investigate complex physical phenomena without committing errors. Future research should focus on improving the performance of AI systems in similar investigations.

  Complete Catalog of Analysis Errors Committed by AI System in the Investigation of the Interaction Field : Twelve Identified and Corrected Failure Modes, the Permanent Norms Derived from Each, and the Record of Issues Closed in Both Directions · 2026 · DOI

• The paper suggests further research into the dark sector, including particle identification, self-interaction, neutrino-dark, modified gravity, and the four SM portals. The paper notes that the robust empirical promotion awaits two runtime gates.

  APF Paper 35 — The Dark Sector as a Two-Role Capacity Decomposition (Technical Supplement) · 2026 · DOI

• The paper notes that the APF2 model does not access the dynamical freedom the data prefer, resulting in a 5-11 χ2 gap.

  APF Paper 35 — The Dark Sector as a Two-Role Capacity Decomposition (Technical Supplement) · 2026 · DOI

• There is limited research on the use of modern technology like AI in the climate diplomacy of developing countries, especially Pakistan. No country-level research has been conducted to explore the use of AI tools in Pakistan.

  AI AS A TOOL OF CLIMATE DIPLOMACY IN PAKISTAN: ACCESSING THE INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY AND POLICY CHALLENGES. · 2026 · DOI

• There are common skill sets that are required across sponsors and funding opportunities regardless of institutional structure, yet methods for training RAs in fundamental grants management within the low- to middle-income countries (LMIC) setting have not been examined.

  Strengthening research administration in low-resource settings: assessment of knowledge gain from a research administration workshop at Makerere University, Uganda · 2026 · DOI

• What happened to the humanities in UNESCO’s diplomatic mission in the following decades remains to be investigated. The ambivalence about how the humanities can be instrumental in the world of diplomacy is not limited to the creation of the ICPHS or even to UNESCOs wide-ranging creed.

  ‘A Powerful and Essential Means of Action’: UNESCO and the Humanities as Science Diplomacy (1945–1949) · 2026 · DOI

• It highlights the need to address the geopolitical and ideological contexts in which science diplomacy operates. The study also notes the challenge of balancing the need for global cooperation with the need for national interests and security concerns.

  The evolution of international scientific collaboration networks in science diplomacy: a scientometric analysis · 2026 · DOI

• There is a lack of analysis on the structure and dynamics of these networks over time. The study highlights the need to understand the key events and factors that have shaped the development of science diplomacy.

  The evolution of international scientific collaboration networks in science diplomacy: a scientometric analysis · 2026 · DOI

• The Indifference Lemma (H3) has been derived from axioms C1–C4 via three lemmas: D42-L1 (Equiparticipation), D42-L2 (Cross-Triangle Blindness), D42-L3 (S4-Equivariance). As a corollary, κ = 310φ/11017 ∈ Q( 5) is an unconditional theorem.

  Projective Dynamic Logo (PDL) — Global Mapping of Structures, Results, and Open Problems (Version 20) · 2026 · DOI

• The mathematical branch BC-XV - BC-XXII should be regarded as a completed technical work. The negative result obtained should be recorded and used as a basis for designing stricter agent architectures and control protocols in future experiments.

  Conclusion of the Experiment Supervisor · 2026 · DOI

• To explore the implications of the results for number theory and algebra.

  QCG Research Notes: No Gloves Archive, Vol. 1: Internal Research Notes, Interpretive Expansions, Corrections, Extensions, and Working Analyses of Quantum Collapse Geometry · 2026 · DOI

• Conduct country-level research to explore the use of AI tools in Pakistan. Investigate the specific ways in which AI can be integrated into climate policies and diplomacy at a national level.

  AI AS A TOOL OF CLIMATE DIPLOMACY IN PAKISTAN: ACCESSING THE INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY AND POLICY CHALLENGES. · 2026 · DOI

• Appendix XL of the Theory of Subjection (Eleandro Rodrigues, 2026) presents four contributions to open problems in contemporary physics: the physical cause of the De Broglie and Bohm pilot wave, identified in the jurisdictional field already formalized in the theory; the jurisdictional reading of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon…

  ADDENDUM — BLOCK XL The Standard Model under Pressure: Pilot Wave, LHC Anomalies, and Fundamental Constants from a Jurisdictional Perspective. CLOSING OF THE ADDENDUM CYCLE. Closing Note and Refinement of Eq. D4 · 2026 · DOI

• Investigating the impact of division of labor on research outcomes, - Examining the role of team leadership in shaping collaboration patterns, - Studying the dynamics of international collaboration in different fields…

  How scientific labor is divided in international collaboration: comparative evidence from China and the United States · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of preservation of failed attempts, revised reasoning, and abandoned hypotheses - The need for a user-centric and AI-enabled support…

  Redesigning Japan's Photon Science Knowledge Infrastructure and Circulation for the SPring-8-II Era · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in International Science and Diplomacy

• A qualitative physics based on confluences · Artificial Intelligence · 1984 · 898 citations
• The Republic of science · Minerva · 1962 · 771 citations
• The Feynman Lectures on Physics; Vol. I · American Journal of Physics · 1965 · 440 citations
• Millikan Lecture 1990: What we teach and what is learned—Closing the gap · American Journal of Physics · 1991 · 337 citations
• The New Separation of Powers · Harvard Law Review · 2000 · 218 citations
• Is the United States losing ground in science? A global perspective on the world science system · Scientometrics · 2008 · 143 citations
• The skewness of science in 219 sub-fields and a number of aggregates · Scientometrics · 2011 · 122 citations
• The reversal small-world experiment · Social Networks · 1978 · 111 citations
• More on the prehistory of the Laplace or Runge–Lenz vector · American Journal of Physics · 1976 · 103 citations
• From Fax to Facts: Communication in the Cold Fusion Saga · Social Studies of Science · 1995 · 101 citations

Most recent work

• The Semantic Deviation Principle (v2.0 — Framework 15 Operational Re-Edition): A Measurement Primitive for Semantic Physics — Founding Formulation by Lee Sharks, Presented within the Framework 15 Architecture · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · 2026
• The evolution of international scientific collaboration networks in science diplomacy: a scientometric analysis · Scientometrics · 2026
• The OMB and the Politicization of Science · New England Journal of Medicine · 2026
• Please Tell Me It Is Only a Nightmare—The Proposed Dismantling of the United States Federal Research Infrastructure · Diabetes Care · 2026
• International collaboration of Ukrainian scholars before and during russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine (2020–2023) · Higher Education · 2026
• The growing concentration of national influence in global science · Nature Human Behaviour · 2026
• Stronger together: 25 years of knowledge production in Northeast Asia · Higher Education · 2026
• Burnout and institutional support among Ukrainian academic staff during wartime · Higher Education Research & Development · 2026
• Exploring geopolitics and innovation: the role of bilateral relationships in shaping research collaboration · Science and Public Policy · 2026
• Carrot and stick: A comparative analysis of instruments for accelerating the hydrogen and power-to-X economy · Energy Policy · 2026

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