On December 27, 2021, the China Institute of Scientific and Technological Information released the "2021 China Science and Technology Papers Statistical Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report") in Beijing. According to the report, from 2011 to 2021, 10 disciplines in China will produce more than 20% of the world's papers. According to the statistics of the number of international papers cited, China ranks first in the world in four fields such as materials science, chemistry, computer science, and engineering technology – compared with the previous year, the field of computer science has increased. Papers in 10 fields, including agricultural sciences, biology and biochemistry, and environment and ecology, are ranked second in the world in terms of citations.
Changes in total citation frequency and impact factor indicators from 2001 to 2020
Statistics show that as of September 2021, the number of highly cited papers in China was 42,900, accounting for 24.8% of the world share, an increase of 15.5% over 2020, and the world ranking remained in the 2nd place; the number of hot papers in China was 1515, accounting for 36.3% of the world total, an increase of 10.2% over 2020, and the world ranking remained in the 2nd place.
Ranking of the number of national (regional) papers published by high-level international journals in 2020
Source: Web ofScience Core Collection SCI, statistics as of September 2021
In order to guide the science and technology management departments and researchers to change from focusing on the number of papers to paying attention to the quality and impact of papers, the China Institute of Scientific and Technological Information began to count the output of China's outstanding scientific and technological papers in 2016. Statistical results show that in 2020, China produced a total of 493,800 outstanding scientific and technological papers, an increase of 27.6% over 2019, of which 246,000 excellent international scientific and technological papers and 247,800 outstanding domestic scientific and technological papers. The disciplines with the highest number of papers of excellence are clinical medicine, chemistry, electronics, communications and automatic control, biology. The report also shows that the number of Chinese scientific and technological journals that have entered the forefront of the world's discipline is increasing, and the influence of Chinese scientific and technological journals continues to increase. In 2020, the SCI database (Science Citation Index) included 225 Chinese scientific and technological journals, an increase of 17 over 2019; the Ei (Engineering Index) database included 229 Chinese scientific and technological journals; and the Medline (Medical Index) included 136 Chinese scientific and technological journals. In 2020, there were 18 Chinese journals in the top quartile of the total citation frequency in this subject area (Q1 area), an increase of 2 over 2019, and 85 journals with impact factors entering the Q1 region, an increase of 16 over 2019. According to the 2021 "China Science and Technology Journals Citation Report", the average impact factor of China's core scientific and technological journals is 0.869, with an average annual growth rate of 6.5% since 2001; the average total frequency of journals is 1523 times, with an average annual growth rate of 9.4% since 2001, and the academic impact level of scientific and technological journals has been significantly improved.
The output of scientific and technological papers is an important indicator for measuring the level of scientific and technological development. Since 1987, the Institute of Scientific and Technological Information of China has been undertaking the statistical analysis of the publication of papers by Chinese scientific and technological personnel at home and abroad, and regularly publishes the overall analysis report of China's scientific and technological paper output every year, and on this basis, it has expanded to the statistical analysis of China's scientific and technological journals, patent output, academic book publishing and other fields.
(Guangming Daily all-media reporter Zhang Lei)
Source: Guangming Daily WeChat public account