KISTI Data Insight Issue No. 42 revealed that China surpassed the United States in most top-tier (top 1%) academic achievements from 2020 to 2022. This suggests that China has already established a “strong hegemony” in the academic supremacy race.
The Korea Institute of Science and Technology Information (KISTI) announced on the 9th that it published a report titled “Changes in the Influence of China’s Academic Achievements: Focusing on Hegemony and Efficiency,” which provides an in-depth analysis of China’s academic outcomes and influence.
Lately, China’s significant progress in the world’s top-tier (1%) research achievements has been noticeable. The report examined whether this trend was under- or overestimated due to differences in research fields, research leadership, and the relatively accessible open-access (OA) paper publications. If a paper’s citation index falls within the top 1% of its field, it is considered a “highly cited paper (HCP).”
The analysis revealed that China’s share of academic achievements (papers) surpassed the United States in seven out of ten major academic fields, including chemistry, electrical engineering, computer science, engineering, and materials science. While the U.S. maintained superiority in clinical and life sciences, physics, and arts and humanities, China already surpassed the U.S. in the remaining fields.
The research team explained, “(China’s rise) is not limited to specific fields but rather shows that China has secured a strong hegemony in most research areas.” In contrast, the share of U.S. academic achievements was generally declining.
From 2022 onwards, it was found that research led by China dominated most top-tier achievements. While the U.S. led most top-tier academic achievements in 2012, since 2022, Chinese-led research has been at the forefront of top-tier results.
China’s proportion of top-tier academic achievements rose sharply from 13% in 2012 to 46% in 2022. During the same period, the U.S. share declined from 54% to 31%. The research team interpreted this as a sign that China’s academic achievements rely more on domestic researchers rather than international collaboration.
The study also investigated whether the relatively easy publication of “open-access (OA)” papers influenced China’s achievements but found it impacts more on U.S. top-tier academic results. China appeared to rely less on the effects of OA papers.
Jeon Seung-pyo, a lead researcher at KISTI’s Global R&D Analysis Center, stated, “The significant rise of China in top-tier papers and journals should not be interpreted narrowly, and China’s academic achievements are close to ‘reality’ rather than exaggeration or misunderstanding.” He also warned that “China’s surge is ongoing, which could further amplify China’s ‘superpower’ status.”