Global Scientific Influence, No.1 US 'Mercury Battle' vs No.2 China 'Chasing Battle'

Clarivate, Calculation Results of Paper Citation Counts from 2010 to 2021

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Bong-su] China has rapidly increased its influence in the international scientific community, such as the number of citations of papers, and is catching up with the United States.

On the 17th, the international academic information company 'Clarivate' announced the list of the world's most influential scientists over 11 years from 2010 to last year, that is, the top 1% (Highly Cited ResearchersㆍHCR) of 6,602 people with the most paper citations. This is the result of analyzing the number of academic paper publications and citation data published in the 'Web of Science,' the world's largest publisher-neutral citation index and research intelligence platform.

According to this, the number of Chinese scientists included in the top 1% has rapidly increased, doubling in four years. China recorded 935 this year, ranking second overall after the United States, and its proportion of the total increased by 6.3 percentage points from 7.9% in 2018 to 14.2% this year. Separately counted Hong Kong also increased significantly from 60 people last year to 79 this year. In the ranking of universities and research institutions producing top 1% researchers, the Chinese Academy of Sciences ranked 2nd (194 people), and Tsinghua University ranked 8th (58 people).

On the other hand, the United States' dominance is gradually weakening. This year, it ranked first with 2,622 people (39.7%), maintaining its status as an influential leading country, but its proportion is gradually decreasing. The number of HCRs in the United States this year decreased by 1.8% compared to the previous year and by 3.6% compared to 2018. It dropped from 43.3% in 2018 to 39.7% this year. Between 2010 and 2020, the proportion of papers registered in Web of Science authored by US-based authors was 24.7%.

As China's leap stands out, other countries generally declined. The United Kingdom ranked third with 7.5%, but decreased by 1.5% compared to 2018, and only Australia, ranked fourth, increased by 1% to 5% compared to 2018. Germany, ranked fifth, also decreased by 0.9% during the same period, and France (8th, 0.4% decrease), Spain (9th, 0.2% decrease), and Switzerland (10th, 0.7% decrease) also declined.

David Pendlebury, senior analyst at ISI (Institute for Scientific Information), said, "The number of Chinese researchers has increased significantly, and the number of American researchers has decreased," adding, "Looking at the trend over the past four years, globalization of research is innovatively realigning the highest level of scientific and academic contributions."

Meanwhile, South Korea had 55 scientists (including duplicate awards) named. This increased by 9 from 46 last year. Seven researchers were selected in two or more fields, so the actual total is 47, of which 44 are Korean, and 3 are foreign researchers conducting research in Korea.

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