“China is now such a substantial global presence as a research economy that few other countries/regions bear sensible comparison,” according to Jonathan Adams, Ryan Fry, David Pendlebury, Ross Potter and Gordon Rogers, who make the case in a new paper for data analytics provider, Clarivate (think Web of Science).
They report China has overtaken the US and EU for academic papers published, and it is matching the US and Germany for proportion of papers rated above world impact.
Although China trails in the elite category, (papers with over eight times world average impact), it is not by much; 1 per cent of papers from China, compared to 1.5 per cent for competitors.
In terms of individuals, there were 312 Chinese researchers in the 2018 HICI awards, growing to 579 in 2022, (17.9 per cent) of world share, (the US is still ahead, with 38 per cent).
HICI shares could expand if international collaborations increase, as such co-authorships tend to have higher citation rates. The US is now the source of most collaborations, 30 per cent, Australia has a touch under 10 per cent.
Broad research areas for China are materials science, engineering, computer science and chemistry with clinical sciences emerging as a major area of collaboration.
