Research Trends -

Since the invention of movable type printing by Bi Sheng almost 1,000 years ago, China has had a long tradition of disseminating the printed word. In the 21st century, the growth in scholarly journal articles by Chinese authors has been nothing short of prodigious. How can we track this growth, and what has its effect on the global research landscape been?

“China has pursued a program of modernization for over 30 years, in particular by increasing the contribution of scientific innovations to the economy,” says Sharon Ruwart, Managing Director of Science & Technology for Elsevier China. “This is helping the country move beyond agriculture and manufacturing into higher value-added production with more indigenous innovation.”

This policy focus has contributed to an exponential increase in Chinese article output of 18% per annum over the last 10 years (Figure 1). As a result, the share of global articles with at least one Chinese author has grown from 3% in 1997 to almost 13% in 2006. In 2006, 49% of these articles were published in English and 51% in Chinese, a ratio that has remained more or less stable over the last decade.

Figure 1 – Number of articles published by Chinese researchers in all languages (dark blue) and those in the Chinese language (light blue) 1997-2006. Source: Scopus

According to Ruwart, this rapid growth seems likely to continue: “The government clearly signalled the high priority it places on science by unveiling a 15-year plan (2006-2020) to systematically invest in designated fields of science and technology, with associated goals for each. One of the plan's key benchmarks is an increase in R&D expenditure from 1.4% to 2.5% of GDP. Underlying GDP growth is estimated to quadruple between 2000 and 2020.”

Other factors contributing to the dramatic increase in scholarly output in the last decade include government and university incentives to publish in international journals, increased exposure to the journal literature via online platforms since the late 1990s and expanded enrolment in higher research degrees since 2000.

The influence of Chinese research on the rest of the world can be gauged by looking at the most influential articles authored solely by authors based in China. The top 14 have collectively been cited more than 6,000 times to date (Table 1). However, according to Martin Tanke, Managing Director of Science & Technology Journals Publishing at Elsevier, “This table masks the quality gap we currently see between well-established international research and the typical low impact of many Chinese papers. But this is starting to change as China moves away from its focus on quantity alone.”

Table 1 – Top-cited articles published solely by Chinese researchers 1997-2006, with citations received to date. Source: Scopus

China’s traditional research strengths have been in Physics, Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, but recently its developing expertise in the Health and Life Sciences has begun to emerge (Figure 2). Tanke continues: “In China there is an enormous emphasis on applied science rather than pure science, as research is expected to deliver tangible benefits to society such as highways, dams, hybrid crops, satellite systems and vaccines.”

Figure 2 - Proportion of journal articles in selected subject areas published by Chinese researchers in 2006. Source: Scopus

Given the high hopes that science will help sustain the country's continued development, the coming years will continue to see China expand and deepen its research capabilities. This is not a temporary phenomenon; as a science power, China is here to stay.

To see the citation report of six countries, including China and Australia, please click here.