China Tops Global Natural Science Research Quality Ranking, Surpassing US... Japan 10th, Korea 12th

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] An analysis by a Japanese government-affiliated research institute revealed that China has surpassed the United States to become the world leader in the qualitative aspect of natural science research. South Korea ranked within the top 12 globally.

The National Institute of Science and Technology Policy under Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology released on the 10th the results of an analysis based on data from the UK patent and academic information company Clarivate, comparing the number of papers from major countries between 2008 (average of 2007?2009) and 2018 (average of 2017?2019).

According to this analysis, China recorded 40,219 so-called "notable papers"?those cited within the top 10%?in 2018, surpassing the United States for the first time, which had 37,124 papers.

While the United States saw only a 3% increase over ten years, China’s number surged approximately 5.1 times.

China’s share of notable papers, which was second place at 7.6% in 2008, soared to 24.8%, taking first place, while the United States’ influence declined from 34.9% to 22.9%, dropping to second place.

In the "Top" papers category, representing the top 1% of notable papers, China’s share reached 25% in 2018, approaching the United States’ 27.2% level.

China’s advancement was also prominent when looking at the share of notable papers by field.

Among eight fields, China led in materials science with a 48.4% share, far ahead of the United States’ 14.6%. China also led in five other fields including chemistry (39.1%, U.S. 14.3%) and engineering (37.3%, U.S. 10.9%).

The United States showed competitive strength in bio-related fields, leading China in clinical medicine (34.5%) and basic life sciences (26.9%).

Regarding this, a representative from the National Institute of Science and Technology Policy told the Nihon Keizai Shimbun that the trend shows China catching up with the United States.

The newspaper reported that the background to the simultaneous increase in quantity and quality of Chinese research papers is the overwhelmingly large number of researchers. As of 2019, China had the world’s largest number of researchers at 2,109,000.

In last year’s total paper count, China recorded 353,174 papers, significantly outpacing the United States’ 285,717 papers.

South Korea ranked 12th for the first time in 2018 with a 2.1% share.

On the other hand, Japan’s ranking fell in both the quality and quantity of papers.

In the notable paper share rankings, Japan was fifth in 2008 with 4.3%, following the United States (34.9%), China (7.6%), the United Kingdom (7.0%), and Germany (6.0%). However, ten years later in 2018, Japan’s share dropped to 2.3%, falling to 10th place.

The Nihon Keizai Shimbun pointed out that while research papers from South Korea, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom are increasing alongside the United States and China, Japan remains stagnant.

The media added that without a special remedy to halt the prolonged decline in Japan’s research capabilities, it will be difficult to prevent the decline of science and technology.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.