A Prophecy of Esau and Jacob

Chinese universities ranked ahead of Oxbridge, Caltech in quality research output by Nature Index.

Nature Index • May 19, 2023 // South China Morning Post • June 12, 2023

“China is a sleeping giant . . . when she wakes up, it will shake the world” Napoleon.

Some universities that are little known outside China are rapidly surpassing their more established counterparts in the West – including Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton and Caltech – in high-quality scientific research, according to the latest Nature Index.

Sun Yat-sen University overtakes Oxford with 22 per cent more contributions to world research in the past year, rankings show.

Seven of the top 10 university contributors were from China in the updated list – maintained by the academic journal Nature – that tracks contributions to research articles published in 82 of the world’s most influential natural science journals.

The index was based on scientific research output between February 1, 2022 and January 31, using “simple, transparent and current metrics that demonstrate high quality research and collaboration,” according to Nature.

For the first time, China has overtaken the United States as the number one ranked country or territory for contributions to research articles published in the Nature Index group of high-quality natural-science journals.

Data on author affiliations from the 82 journals tracked by the Nature Index show that China had a Share of 19,373 from January to December 2022, compared with 17,610 for the United States (see ‘Role reversal’).

A country’s Share takes into account the percentage of authors from that nation on each paper published in Nature Index journals; an article published entirely by China-based researchers would yield a Share of 1 for China.

Since the Nature Index was first introduced in 2014, China’s Share has been rapidly gaining ground, and it was the leading country in the physical sciences and chemistry in 2021.

The latest data — a snapshot of the database taken in April, ahead of the full release of 2022 data in the 2023 Nature Index annual tables — suggest that China also overtook the United States in Earth and environmental sciences for the first time. This leaves only one natural-sciences category — life sciences — in which it is still trailing.

“China rocks in my opinion” Elon Musk

~ by Joel on June 14, 2023.

Posted in China, Tech Race, US