China pushes to increase publishing and R&D

MAR 22, 2013

Physics Today

Chronicle of Higher Education : China has surpassed every country in the world except the US in the numbers of scholarly papers published per year. Although the US published more than twice as many papers in 2011 as China did, experts predict that China will become the top producer within the next seven years. In terms of quality, Chinese papers are being increasingly cited, says David Pendlebury, one of the authors of a recent Thomson Reuters report entitled Building Bricks: Exploring the Global Research and Innovation Impact of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Korea. In addition, China has surpassed the US in numbers of patents issued and is pushing to increase the proportion of gross domestic product spent on R&D. However, rather than viewing the trend as a power shift, Pendlebury says, it should be seen as an “opportunity for expanded collaboration.”