China beats US in top global scientific ‘hot papers’ ranking: report

The number of ‘hot papers’ – those that receive instant recognition – published by Chinese scientists has topped a global list
China also came first in six major disciplines on a chart tracking international citations of scientific papers

Science

Ling Xinin Ohio

Published: 4:00pm, 21 Sep 2023

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For the first time, China has surpassed the US with the number of papers published and cited in the world’s most influential journals, a new report has found.

China also ranked first on the international papers citation chart in six major disciplines – agricultural sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, materials science and mathematics. The top spot in mathematics was a new achievement compared with the previous year.

According to the Statistical Data of Chinese S&T Papers released on Wednesday by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC), Chinese researchers published 1,929 “hot papers” – papers that receive significant numbers of citations soon after publication, usually in a rapidly evolving field such as molecular biology and materials science – accounting for 46 per cent of the global total by July.

Meanwhile, US researchers produced 1,592 hot papers, taking second place. The US was followed by Britain, Germany and Australia, according to the data from ISTIC, which has been tracking papers published by Chinese researchers in domestic and overseas journals since 1987.

While most papers reach their citation peak two to four years after publication, some become hot and receive recognition very quickly, seeing them cited rapidly and extensively because of their importance to a field of high current interest.

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Hot papers are often measured in bimonthly periods rather than years. They need to be no more than two years old and have citations among the top 0.1 per cent in their field over the past two months.

In comparison, another indicator known as highly cited papers are based on 10 years of publication data, and refer to the top 1 per cent of papers which often lead to fundamental breakthroughs in their field.

In terms of highly cited papers, the report found China remained in second place with 57,900 papers, while the US took the lead with a total of 76,600 highly cited papers. This amounted to 41 per cent of the global total.

The report also noted a significant increase in the proportion of high-quality, high-influence Chinese papers published in domestic, rather than Western, journals.

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“The impact of China’s core scientific and technological journals continues to grow, and their ability to attract high-level papers has been going up steadily,” the report said.

Last year, domestic journals published nearly 42,000 research papers with regard to national major projects and key research and development programmes, covering a wide range of disciplines including clinical medicine, agriculture, environmental sciences, electronics, communications and earth sciences, the report said.