#nature-index

#nature-index

In 2018, I argued that China's meteoric growth in research output masked deeper structural issues, including inconsistent research quality and a 'publish or perish' academic culture. Seven years on, that picture has changed. Research quality in China has improved: in 2023, it overtook the United States as the leading country in the Nature Index, which tracks output in high-quality natural- and health-sciences journals. Since then, the gap between the two countries has only widened.