China Surpasses the US in the Quality of Scientific and Technological Papers

KISTI Publishes Global US-China Science and Technology Competition Landscape Report

2017~2019 Top 1% by Number of Papers: Landscape of US-China Science and Technology Competition. Source=Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] China has surpassed the United States not only in the quantity but also in the quality of scientific and technological papers.

The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) announced on the 4th that it recently published the "Global US-China Science and Technology Competition Landscape" report to objectively assess the relative competitiveness between the US and China amid the US-China technological hegemony competition.

In particular, besides simply comparing the number of papers by field, the report compared the number of papers in the top 10% most cited and the top 1% most cited papers by country, which generally indicate the excellence of scientific papers. As a result, based on the number of top 1% most cited papers, China surpassed the US in most research fields within the domains of physical sciences and engineering, mathematics, and computer science.

According to the 4,140 detailed global science and technology landscape maps disclosed by the institute, the relative dominance of the US and China is expressed in color based on the number of top 1% most cited papers, where a deeper red indicates Chinese dominance and a deeper blue indicates US dominance. The size of the circle is proportional to the number of papers from the US and China.

Among the 10 analyzed fields, China’s number of top 1% most cited papers in chemistry, electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, materials engineering, and nanotechnology was more than twice that of the US. Except for the two fields of life sciences and clinical medicine, China surpassed the US in the number of papers, top 10% most cited papers, and top 1% most cited papers in the remaining eight fields during 2017?2019.

In the case of the number of top 1% most cited papers from 2017 to 2019, China exceeded twice the US in six of the ten major fields analyzed (chemistry, electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, materials engineering, nanotechnology), with field-specific shares ranging from a minimum of 44.31% to a maximum of 71.37%. China quantitatively and qualitatively surpassed the US across all STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields except for life sciences and healthcare during the 2010s, and the overall research level was found to be comparable to that of the US.

Even when expanded to 20 detailed subfields corresponding to science and technology among the 39 major categories of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), China surpassed the US in the past decade not only in the total number of papers but also in the number of top 10% most cited papers and top 1% most cited papers in all fields except biotechnology, biomedical engineering, basic medical sciences, clinical medicine, and health sciences. Especially, based on the ratio of top 10% most cited papers, which indicates the overall research level in the field, China led the US in ten fields: mathematics, chemistry, earth and environmental sciences, civil engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, nanotechnology, health sciences, and agriculture, forestry, and fisheries.