## 4 Discussion
### Future Research Directions  
Building on the current study, future research could extend our understanding of scientific productivity at the country level in several ways. A longitudinal analysis would be valuable to track how the relationships between socio-economic factors and scientific output evolve over time, potentially revealing the impact of policy interventions or global trends. Exploring field-specific factors, such as national cybersecurity policies or cryptocurrency regulations, could provide deeper insights into the unique drivers of productivity in blockchain, privacy, and cybersecurity research.  
Further investigation into institutional factors, like university rankings or industry-academia collaboration rates, would complement the current macro-level analysis. This could be enriched by the qualitative case studies of countries showing exceptional performance or unexpected patterns. Examining the international collaboration networks and their relation to national productivity levels would add another dimension to our understanding.  
Future studies could also explore the link between publication quantity and the various measures of research impact or innovation outcomes. Extending the analysis to other rapidly evolving technological fields would help identify common patterns or divergences in the factors influencing scientific productivity across different domains. Evaluating the effectiveness of specific national policies aimed at boosting research in these areas would provide practical insights for policymakers.  
Additionally, analyzing the effect of human capital flow, such as brain drain or gain, on national scientific productivity in these specialized fields could reveal important dynamics. Finally, exploring how the interdisciplinary nature of blockchain, privacy, and cybersecurity research might influence productivity factors would contribute to a more nuanced understanding of these technological fields.  
The following supporting information can be downloaded at: [[https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app14167086/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app14167086/s1)]([https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app14167086/s1](https://www.mdpi.com/article/10.3390/app14167086/s1)), Supplementary Materials with additional charts and regression models.  
**Author Contributions:** Conceptualization, E.B., R.R., D.T. and A.R.S.; methodology, E.B., R.R., D.T. and A.R.S.; validation, E.B., R.R., D.T. and A.R.S.; formal analysis, E.B., R.R., D.T. and A.R.S.; resources, R.R. and D.T.; data curation, E.B.; writing--original draft preparation, E.B.; writing--review and editing, E.B., R.R., D.T. and A.R.S.; visualization, E.B.; supervision, R.R., D.T. and A.R.S.; funding acquisition, R.R. and D.T. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
**Institutional Review Board Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Informed Consent Statement:** Not applicable.  
**Data Availability Statement:** The data analyzed in the study is included in the Supplementary Material, further inquiries can be directed to the corresponding author.  
**Conflicts of Interest:** The authors declare no conflicts of interest.