China overtakes the US in scientific research output
Between 2018 and 2020 China published 23.4% of the world’s scientific papers, eclipsing the US
The Japanese report also found that Chinese research comprised 27.2% of the world’s top 1% most frequently cited papers Photograph: Xinhua/Rex/Shutterstock
China
has overtaken the US as the world leader in both scientific research
output and “high impact” studies, according to a report published by
Japan’s science and technology ministry.
The
report, which was published by Japan’s National Institute of Science and
Technology Policy (NISTP) on Tuesday, found that China now publishes
the highest number of scientific research papers yearly, followed by the
US and Germany.
The figures were based on yearly averages between 2018 and 2020, and drawn from data compiled by the analytics firm Clarivate.
The
Japanese NISTP report also found that Chinese research comprised 27.2%
of the world’s top 1% most frequently cited papers. The number of
citations a research paper receives is a commonly used metric in
academia. The more times a study is cited in subsequent papers by other
researchers, the greater its “citation impact”.
The US accounted for 24.9% of the top 1% most highly cited research studies, while UK research was third at 5.5%.
China
published a yearly average of 407,181 scientific papers, pulling ahead
of the US’s 293,434 journal articles and accounting for 23.4% of the
world’s research output, the report found.
China
accounted for a high proportion of research into materials science,
chemistry, engineering and mathematics, while US researchers were more
prolific in research into clinical medicine, basic life sciences and
physics.
The report was published on the day US
president Joe Biden signed the Chips and Science Act, legislation that
would authorise $200bn in research funding over 10 years to make US
scientific research more competitive with China.
The
Chinese embassy in the US said last month that China was “firmly
opposed” to the bill which it said was “entrenched in [a] cold war and
zero-sum game mentality”.
The “high impact” finding is in keeping with research published earlier this year, which found that China overtook the US in 2019 in the top 1% measure, and passed the European Union in 2015.
Papers
that receive more citations than 99% of research are “works that are
seen as being in the class of Nobel prize winners, the very leading edge
of science”, study co-author Dr Caroline Wagner said at the time. “The
US has tended to rank China’s work as lower quality. This appears to
have changed.”
The US still spends more on
research and development in the corporate and university sectors than
any other country, the report also found. “China has the largest number
of researchers in the corporate and university sectors among major
countries. In the corporate sector, the United States and China are on
par with each other, and both are showing rapid growth.”
“China
is one of the top countries in the world in terms of both the quantity
and quality of scientific papers,” Shinichi Kuroki of the Japan Science
and Technology Agency told Nikkei Asia. “In order to become the true global leader, it will need to continue producing internationally recognised research,” he said.