Surpassing Oxbridge... China's Great Leap Forward in Science Paper-Based University Rankings

Harvard Ranks 1st... Following University of Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Sciences University
Oxford University and Cambridge University Rank Only 16th and 19th

In a university evaluation based on research papers published in influential scientific journals, Chinese universities dominated the top ranks.

According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 12th, among the top 10 universities in the recently released Nature Index institutional rankings, seven universities were Chinese institutions.

Oxford University. [Image source=Pixabay]

The Nature Index is a research competitiveness indicator that converts research achievements into numerical values by synthesizing contributions to papers, number of co-authors, and weighted scores by academic fields from 82 of the world's most influential natural science journals. It is regarded as an authoritative indicator in the field of basic sciences and is used to assess the competitiveness of universities.

According to the index, Harvard University ranked first, and excluding large-scale institutions, the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC) and the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (UCAS), affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, ranked second and third respectively.

Nanjing University, Beijing University, and Tsinghua University, the oldest prestigious universities in China, ranked fourth to sixth respectively. Additionally, Zhejiang University and Sun Yat-sen University were ranked eighth and tenth. Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) from the United States ranked seventh and ninth, respectively, with American and Chinese universities sharing the top 10 positions.

On the other hand, the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom ranked only 16th and 19th.

SCMP stated, "Looking at the Nature Index from 2015 to 2023, one can see how rapidly China is closing the gap with the United States and the West in terms of high-quality research output."

University of Science and Technology of China. [Photo by Yonhap News]

The media reported that the growth of Chinese universities in research fields is related to prominent scientists returning to China and changing their affiliations to institutions within China.

Also, according to an article published in the peer-reviewed journal Science in August, Chinese scientists have emerged as leaders in the number of highly cited papers, marking a leap to the forefront.

However, there are opinions that the Nature Index is an incomplete measurement indicator due to its limitation of tracking only a portion of published papers and focusing solely on natural sciences.

Professor Liu Junfeng of Nankai University said, "Many research institutions choose to keep technologies confidential instead of publishing papers or filing patents," adding, "Therefore, the information reflected in the index is inevitably limited."

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