Japan’s Ministry of Science and Technology recently released a report that China now ranks first in the world in the number of scientific research papers and top-cited papers, which is expected to boost China’s competitiveness. its economy and its industries the future. Between 2018 and 2020, China reportedly published 27.1% of the top 1% of most-cited papers globally, overtaking the United States with 24.9%. The study places the United Kingdom in third place with 5.5%.
The rivalry between China and the United States has greatly increased in recent years, particularly in the field of technology. And while the United States has always been one step ahead of its Asian rival, it seems that the trend has reversed over the past three years. For the first time, China is said to have overtaken the United States as the world leader in the quantity and quality (helpful of other researchers) of scientific papers published. Indeed, scientific research articles are considered to be of higher quality when cited by others.
The figures are based on annual averages between 2018 and 2020, and are taken from data compiled by analytics firm Clarivate. The report, released earlier this month by Japan’s National Institute of Science and Technology Policy (NISTP), an entity of Japan’s Ministry of Science and Technology, found that Chinese research accounted for 27.2 percent, or 4,744 papers, of the top 1% of most-cited papers globally from 2018-20. The US accounted for 24.9%, or 4,330 papers, followed by the UK with 5.5% and 963 papers. But this prowess would not only concern quality articles.
China would have published an annual average of 407,181 scientific articles over this period, ahead of the 293,434 articles of the United States and representing 23.4% of global research output. China is one of the leading countries in the world in terms of the quantity and quality of scientific articles. To become the true world leader, the country must continue to produce internationally recognized research, said Shinichi Kuroki, deputy director general of the Asia-Pacific Research Center of the Japanese Agency for Science and Technology. Germany is fourth in the ranking.
In addition, the report finds that China is the source of much research in materials science, chemistry, engineering and mathematics, while American researchers are more prolific in clinical medicine research, in basic life sciences and physics. Meanwhile, Japan would fall behind. It ranks 5th for total number of publications and 10th for 1% most cited papers in the latest report, after losing ground to India. It fell to 12th place in the ranking of the 10% most cited articles, ahead of Spain and South Korea.
The number of universities in India is said to have increased 4.6 times, from 243 in 2000 to 1,117 in 2018. More than two million people are said to graduate with a bachelor of science degree there each year. By contrast, research in Japan has reportedly slowed since the mid-2000s and no recovery is in sight, raising concerns about the impact on the country’s economy and industries. According to experts, this result was expected given China’s huge talent pool, increasing research budget and strong social and political support for research enterprises.
However, Sino-American competition in the field of science and technology should increase again after the adoption by the United States of the law (Chips and Science Act) aimed at strengthening their scientific competitiveness vis-à-vis China. The law provides funding of 200 billion dollars over 10 years for this. The Chinese Embassy in the United States said last month that China “strongly opposes” the bill, which it says is “rooted in a cold war, zero-sum game mentality”. The report was released the day US President Joe Biden signed the law.
China has also faced US sanctions for several years, particularly in the area of technology. However, experts said pressure from the US government will only motivate China’s scientific community to make more novel breakthroughs and achieve self-sufficiency in science and technology. According to them, China’s progress in the quality and quantity of its scientific output has been well documented over the years. These advances would have played a major role in supporting China’s socio-economic development.
Similarly, they would have enabled the strengthening of the prestige of the Chinese scientific community in the field of cutting-edge science and global scientific and technological governance. Finally, the report indicates that the United States still spends more on research and development in the corporate and academic sectors than any other country. But he clarifies: China has the largest number of researchers in the corporate and academic sectors among the major countries. In the corporate sector, the United States and China are tied, and both are growing rapidly .
Source: Report of the Japanese Minister of Science and Technology
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