International collaboration and Chinese publication rates are increasing

Nature : A new report from NSF reveals the continuing increase in the publication of scientific papers by Chinese authors. Of nearly 2.2 million peer-reviewed articles published in 2013, 18.2% came from China, just slightly less than the 18.8% from the US. As a bloc, the European Union leads publication share with 27.5%. The number of papers published by international collaborators is also increasing significantly, with 19.2% of 2013 papers having authors from multiple countries, up from 13.2% in 2000. Authors in smaller countries are more likely to collaborate with people from other countries than are authors from larger countries: More than half the papers from the UK had an international coauthor, compared with one-third from the US and just 15% from China. Between 2003 and 2013, China saw the largest growth in production, with the number of publications increasing by 18.9% per year. The US saw an annual growth of just 3.2%.