The Nature Publishing Index 2012 (NPI) China was released by Nature Asia last month. The NPI measures the output of research articles from nations and institutions in terms of publications in the 18 Nature-branded primary research journals in 2012. The index showed China’s growing importance in world science and listed 4 institutions in the world top 100. The total number of papers published by China-based authors grew by 35 per cent compared to 2011.
The report, published as a supplement to Nature, showed that authors from institutions in China contributed 8.5 percent, or 303 papers, of all research papers published in Nature branded journals in 2012. This means a considerable increase compared to the 7.0 per cent in 2011 and 5.3 per cent in 2010. In 2000, only six articles with co-authors from China were published in Nature branded journals.
The top two institutions in China remain stable from 2011 to 2012: the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) followed by the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), which is also managed by the CAS. Tsinghua University, Peking University, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) complete the top five with Tsinghua surpassing its rival Peking University. The leading scientific publisher in China remains the conglomerate of over 100 CAS institutes that showed an increase of 50% of papers which gave them the 12th position in the global ranking.
The 2012 NPI also showed that China proved strong in the field of life sciences. China ranked first Asia in five Nature-branded journals: “Nature Biotechnology,” “Nature Cell Biology,” “Nature Genetics,” “Nature Structural & Molecular Biology” and “Nature Methods.” Other strong fields were Physics and Chemistry.
The Nature Publishing Index 2012 China supplement also presents a ranking by city. Beijing continues to dominate, followed by Shanghai, Hefei, Hong Kong and Wuhan.
You can download the entire supplement from the following link.