The latest paper by Taiwanese scholars: Chinese scholars are beginning to go global, and the global scientific center is shifting to the east

Guide

"While the economy is growing exponentially, the rise of technology in China has had a profound impact
on global science.
"

In an article commenting on China's technological reforms, Vincent Larivière of the University of Quebec in Montreal lamented
.

In the past few decades, the speed of China's scientific research paper output has attracted the attention of the world, and the high citation rate of papers has gradually caught up with that of the United States, although the specific data is somewhat biased (note: according to different statistical methods), but the rise of China's scientific research is an indisputable fact
.

Previous analyses have often been based on data from different countries and regions, which has led to the neglect of the academic output of millions of Chinese students, who may be the main scientific research force in many countries
.

Recently, researchers from Taiwan quantitatively analyzed the contributions of Chinese scholars to global science (mainly physics) through articles published by Chinese scholars in papers around the world from 2010 to 2021 and their citation data, and they found an interesting phenomenon - adding Chinese authors in a paper can increase its citation rate
.

The researchers also found that the number of Chinese scholars not only affects the net increase in the publication of a country's papers, but also affects the citation rate of a paper.

1 The world's scientific research centers are moving eastward

In the scientific research community, if global scientific research is compared to a system, then the center of the global scientific system has undergone earth-shaking changes
in the past hundred years of history.

According to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute, from the 16th century to the present, global scientific research centers first began in the United Kingdom, then moved west to the United States, and more recently began to move east to China
.

Recently, Zhang Zhiwei and others of the Center for Condensed Matter Science at National Taiwan University published an article in Science Reports arguing that the rapid rise of China's scientific level has gradually lost its aura to other scientific research powers that once stood on the top of the mountain (the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Japan) - first the number of published papers, then the number of citations, and now highly cited papers
.

Zhiwei Chang, Center for Condensed Matter Science, National Taiwan University

These phenomena have awakened some countries to take action and initiate scientific reforms, hoping to introduce new scientific policies to meet the challenges
.

However, the question before the world is: what is the right way to stimulate a country's scientific capacity? What is the relationship between R&D spending and scientific output? How do we measure the link between a country's scientific research impact and the economy?

These questions have been discussed
repeatedly by scientists.
Many of them advocate that "open countries have stronger science," meaning that international cooperation through scholarly exchanges will promote more impactful papers
.

Zhang Zhiwei said that hundreds of thousands of Chinese students immigrate to many countries every year to pursue higher education, and they have become the core blood
of many scientific research institutions around the world.

2.
Chinese scholars began to go global

In order to explore the publication status of Chinese scholars in various countries and their contribution to science in that country, Zhang Zhiwei and others analyzed the publication and citation of Chinese students and scholars in physics journals, and quantitatively analyzed their contributions to
global physical science.

Before the outbreak of the pandemic, in 2019, how many Chinese students flew to study in countries around the world?

According to Zhang Zhiwei and others, about 369,500 people went to the United States, 153,800 in Australia, 109,200 in the United Kingdom, 96,200 in Canada, 86,400 in Japan, 36,900 in Germany and 30,100 in
France.

It is worth mentioning that Chinese students rank first in the world in GRE scores, but nearly 90% of Chinese students choose to stay in the United States
after obtaining a doctorate.

3.
Scholars from China who have made significant contributions to global scholarship

What are the specific results of the analysis? Let's take a look at each of them, let's first look at the net increase in published articles in various countries, and the proportion of Chinese scholars as first
authors.

The area of the circle in the figure below represents the total number of articles published in a country from 2010 to 2021, with the ordinate being the net increase in articles published by each country and the abscissa being the proportion of
Chinese scholars as first authors.
The cases of China, Singapore and Australia are more special, indicated by red circles
.

The relationship between the net increment of articles published in different journals and the proportion of Chinese first authors

Overall, the number of articles published by Chinese scholars as first authors is high
in most journals.

Among the top journals in science, Nature and Science, China's rapid rise has made publishing in top journals more competitive
.
Notably, the net increase in published articles in Japan and France showed a downward trend, while the United States and Germany remained almost unchanged
.
In articles published in Australia, the proportion of Chinese scholars as a work is relatively high
.

The researchers also found that there are Chinese scholars who are far ahead in the number of papers published, but there is one exception, and there are very few publications in Science Reports.

This is because since Science Reports was launched as an open-access journal in 2011, China has since regarded the journal as a water journal and does not count as a key performance indicator, which may also be the reason why
Chinese students' interest in submitting to Science Reports is currently low.

4.
Does adding Chinese works increase the citation rate?

In addition, the authors of this paper found an interesting phenomenon
.

In addition to affecting the number of papers published in various countries, will Chinese scholars as first authors affect the citation rate of papers? To understand this question, the researchers further analyzed the relationship
between the ratio of Chinese scholars as first authors and the average number of citations for papers published between 2010 and 2015.

After analysis, the researchers found that increasing the number of Chinese authors in a paper might lead to more citations
.

For example, in the United States, if there is a 10% increase in Chinese authors in a paper, the number of citations in the article will increase by about 1%.

In Australia and Singapore, a 10% increase in Chinese authors for a paper increases citations more than in the United States
.
Of course, the specific citation rate is also affected
by different journals.

Finally, the researchers concluded that countries around the world have an indisputable fact before their eyes – countries that do not cultivate talent could jeopardize their education and economies
in the future.
Therefore, the education of talents is inseparable from scientific research development and economic development, and is a key factor in improving the level of
scientific research.

References

1.
The influence of Chinese scholars on global research | Scientific Reports (nature.
com)

2.
Five measures that chart the rise of Chinese influence in global research - Digital Science (digital-science.
com)

3.
Urban world： Cities and the rise of the consuming class | McKinsey

4.
China’s Research Evaluation Reform： What are the Consequences for Global Science？ | SpringerLink