Report: Impact of Chinese Research "On Par" With U.S.

"Until around 2018, when the U.S. began increasing its scrutiny of its research partnerships with China and other countries of concern, the U.S. produced far more total research than China. But as of 2024, China produced 878,307 journal articles and reviews in journals compared to 509,485 produced by the U.S, according to a report the Institute for Scientific Information at Clarivate Analytics published last week."

"In addition to an uptick in volume, the impact of China's research output has nearly caught up to the U.S.'s-and could even surpass it in the coming years-after years of lagging behind the United States and the world average. "Competition for the U.S. research system is rising," Dmytro Filchenko, senior director of research and analytics at ISI and co-author of the report, told Inside Higher Ed. "We can see a shocking trend for China, which for the first time ever is on par with U.S. research.""

"The report analyzed academic journal data from 1999 to 2024, including citation impact ratings, total research output and collaborations, for the U.S., China and the European Union, which are the three largest hubs of research activity. Since 1999, papers co-authored by E.U. and U.S. researchers have had the highest Category Normalized Citation Impact (CNCI). Over the past few years, however, the CNCIs for collaborations between E.U. and Chinese researchers and U.S. and Chinese researchers have nearly caught up."

Data from 1999 to 2024 show that China's scholarly output increased sharply, reaching 878,307 journal articles and reviews in 2024 versus 509,485 for the U.S. Research impact metrics indicate that China's citation influence has nearly matched the U.S. and may surpass it soon after years of lagging. Since around 2018, U.S. policy measures tightening scrutiny of research partnerships coincided with a relative slowdown in U.S. output growth. The U.S. retains global leadership in research and development, but much of its advantage stems from international collaborations, and CNCI gaps have narrowed.

Read at Inside Higher Ed | Higher Education News, Events and Jobs