China has replaced Japan as the world's second leading producer of scientific research and is on course to overtake the United States in two years' time, a top British academy says.
The report released by the Royal Society in London is based on the publication data of scientific research papers published in recognised international journals between 1999-03 and 2004-08.
China shot up from sixth place (4.4 per cent of the total) to second place with 10.2 per cent over the two periods. Although the US still leads the world, its share of global authorship has fallen to 21 per cent from 26 per cent. 'China's rise up the rankings has been especially striking,' the report said.
'China has heavily increased its investment in R&D [research and development], with spending growing by 20 per cent per year since 1999 to reach over US$100 billion a year today,' it added.
However, the report also pointed out that the quantity of published scientific research did not necessarily translate into quality.
One real index of the value of any scientific research is the number of times it is cited by peer scientists in their work. Although China has risen in the citation rankings as well, its performance on this measure lags behind its publication rate.