That France has been relatively declining in world science for twenty years is very likely true. But the figures put forward by the Observatoire des sciences et techniques call for careful examination. Two objections have been raised.
Measuring scientific output
The first objection is arithmetic. The study measures global market shares, yet the rise of emerging countries changes the picture. With China and India together going from 10% to 34% of publications and from 4.9% to 21% of citations, every established country mechanically falls back. Had France maintained its relative position in the world excluding China and India, its share of citations would be 3.58% instead of 2.7%, and its share of output 3% instead of 1.88%. This recomposition alone accounts for 46% to 77% of the decline depending on the indicator. A point of reference: on the influence indicator, the one from which the press drew the "minus 60%," the United States falls from 39.3% to 15% of the most‑cited articles, i.e. −61.8%, a decline almost exactly comparable to that of France (−61.3%). Yet no French media outlet ran a headline about the collapse of American research.
That part of the decline could not have been prevented by any national policy : a global market share is not a manageable objective, and making it a target amounts to setting an unattainable goal only to conclude afterwards that it has failed.
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