Well, I won science as bablyon but I think you could do it with any civ. You can compensate for bulbing a few techs by just ramping up your science output. For ex, when I did it I stuck with just 4 cities, and later took over a city state for the sick strategic resources they had. But there's no particular reason to stay small. Once you have most of the rationalism tree filled out you might as well expand and go nuts with econ and science in new cities. So you could do that with just about any civ.
China was tempting since their libraries give some gold and I'm having econ issues every time I play. But, that extra gold isn't going to solve the money problems I keep inflicting on my empires. So...
I use a lot of golden ages. A lot. Sometimes I'm popping great people left and right just for the production and gold boosts. Persia would be a nice civ for production-oriented victory, IMO, because I'd get a lot of use out of the extended golden ages trait, for sure. Plus you have a strong early UU to make sure you carve out your ideal initial territory.
I considered Rome similarly. You're going to bulid a LOT of buildings for a science win, and you pretty much go with a strong capital regardless of what you're doing, so, you'd get a lot of mileage out of the roman production trait. And again, strong UUs at a nice time to ensure you have the empire of choice as a foundation. Being militarily strong is good to deter early aggressors or grab resources.
