Significance This research deals with the development of capacity-building through marine bioresearch from a scientific standpoint, particularly through a new approach based on publication and authorship metrics. By using a 50-y dataset on the discovery of marine natural products, this study draws verifiable conclusions on capacity-building, a process that is often difficult to quantify. This is a stepping-stone toward evidence-based capacity building for bioprospecting as originally envisioned in the framework of high-level international fora, such as the Convention on Biological Diversity and, more recently, the Nagoya Protocol.