Editing Science and technology in China (section)

== Academic publishing ==
{{main|Academic publishing in China}}
The [[Royal Society]] in a 2011 report on [[academic publishing]] stated that in share of English scientific research papers the United States was first followed by China, the UK, Germany, Japan, France, and Canada. The report predicted that China would overtake the United States some time before 2020, possibly as early as 2013. Science-Metrix, a Canadian [[data-analysis]] company, predicted that in 2010 China would publish as many natural sciences and engineering [[peer-review]]ed papers as the United States. In 2015 China is predicted to publish as many papers as the US across all fields. In 2030 China is predicted to surpass the US in life and social sciences.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Iran showing fastest scientific growth of any country|url=https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18546-iran-showing-fastest-scientific-growth-of-any-country/|last1=MacKenzie|first1=Debora|website=New Scientist}}</ref> In 2017, China overtakes the U.S. with the highest number of scientific publications.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Tollefson|first1=Jeff|date=2018-01-18|title=China declared world's largest producer of scientific articles|journal=Nature|language=en|volume=553|issue=7689|page=390|doi=10.1038/d41586-018-00927-4|bibcode=2018Natur.553..390T|doi-access=free}}</ref>

An analysis of [[ISI Web of Knowledge]] data found that China had increased its share of the most highly cited science articles from 1.85% in 2001 to 11.3% in 2011. By 2019, China overtakes UK in 'highly cited researchers' table and ranks second after the United States according to Web of Science, who publish the annual list.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Highly Cited Researchers 2019: Strong evidence of Mainland China's rise to the highest levels of research|url=https://clarivate.com/article/highly-cited-researchers-2019-strong-evidence-of-mainland-chinas-rise-to-the-highest-levels-of-research/|last1=Clarivate|first1=David Pendlebury Head of Research Analysis|date=2019-11-19|website=Clarivate|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-10}}</ref> Chinese research papers in the fields of material science, chemistry and engineering technology were the most cited in the world in the past decade, according to the same report.<ref>{{Cite web|title=China now No 2 in cited scientific papers - Chinadaily.com.cn|url=https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/a/201911/20/WS5dd4930fa310cf3e355788ff.html|last=马驰|website=global.chinadaily.com.cn|access-date=2020-05-10}}</ref> The share of the United States declined from 64.3% to 50.7% during the same ten-year period.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.natureasia.com/en/information/press_releases/20120524_NPI-China-2011.php |title=China on track for #2 most influential country in science publishing by 2014 &#124; Press Release |access-date=2012-05-25  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120528080641/http://www.natureasia.com/en/information/press_releases/20120524_NPI-China-2011.php |archive-date=2012-05-28 }}</ref>

A 2009 study of Chinese social science studies in the [[Social Sciences Citation Index]] found a slow increase until 1999. The 1999-2007 period saw a very rapid increase. However, in 2007 China still only contributed 1.39% of the studies and mainland China only surpassed Hong Kong in 2006. Economics & business had larger share than social, political & communication science and psychology. The low share of social sciences compared to natural sciences may reflect that this is a common pattern in Asian nations, that Chinese social scientists publish in national journals not included in the Index and have less career incitements regarding publishing in international journals, and that state ideology and control is more important for social sciences than natural sciences. In China natural sciences are administered by the [[Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China|Ministry of Science and Technology]] while social sciences are administered by the National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Sciences which may hinder inter-disciplinary collaboration.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Zhou | first1 = P. | last2 = Thijs | first2 = B. | last3 = Glänzel | first3 = W. | doi = 10.1007/s11192-007-2068-x | title = Is China also becoming a giant in social sciences? | journal = Scientometrics | volume = 79 | issue = 3 | page = 593 | year = 2008 | s2cid = 23590444 }}</ref> Although the proportion of Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) articles published internationally from Mainland China has been increasing over time during 1999–2018, it only accounted for 14% of the world in 2018 compared to Eastern Europe (around 25 percent) and Western Europe (around 50 percent).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Toward internationalization: a bibliometric analysis of the social sciences in Mainland China from 1979 to 2018|url=https://osf.io/preprints/socarxiv/jzu25/|website=osf.io|access-date=2020-05-10}}</ref>

Articles published in China related to basic medial science and clinical research and indexed by [[PubMed]] increased on average by 31.2% and 22% each year between 2000 and 2009. [[Randomized clinical trial]] were about 1/3 of clinical research articles. However, in 2009 this still represented only 1.5% of worldwide clinical research articles and 1.7% of worldwide randomized clinical trials. Clinical research education for medical students and the involvement and the supporting environment for medical doctors regarding clinical research have shortcomings.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Hu | first1 = Y. | last2 = Huang | first2 = Y. | last3 = Ding | first3 = J. | last4 = Liu | first4 = Y. | last5 = Fan | first5 = D. | last6 = Li | first6 = T. | last7 = Shou | first7 = C. | last8 = Fan | first8 = J. | last9 = Wang | first9 = W. | doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(11)60017-2 | last10 = Dong | first10 = Z. | last11 = Qin | first11 = X. | last12 = Fang | first12 = W. | last13 = Ke | first13 = Y. | title = Status of clinical research in China | journal = The Lancet | volume = 377 | issue = 9760 | pages = 124–5 | year = 2011 | pmid =  21215881| s2cid = 8737517 | doi-access = free }}</ref>

There are 8,000 journals and 4,600 in scientific fields. Almost all Chinese science organizations publish their own journal. The government owns or supports most journals with only a small number being privately owned. The "[[publish or perish]]" system has been argued to contribute to many low quality journals and articles that are infrequently cited and also to [[plagiarism]] and fraud. The Chinese government has put into place stricter regulations, punished or terminated some journals, and aims increase quality control and peer evaluation of journals as well as to create five to ten large publishing groups.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20110227085921588|title=CHINA: Crackdown on sub-standard journals - University World News|work=universityworldnews.com}}</ref> As part of the reforms, in 2012 the [[China Association for Science and Technology]], which oversees 1,050 journals, in a declaration listed various forms of misconduct, plagiarism, and fraud and as well,  the penalties for perpetrating them such as written warnings, blacklisting, contacting the researcher's home institution or funding agencies, or public disclosure. It has also been seen as important by increasing pressure on other journals and by informing editors who may not know that some actions such as favoring researchers based on personal relations are unacceptable. China also plans to give substantial financial incentives to top journals based on factors such as their Chinese and international [[impact factor]]. It has been questioned if this will have an effect on the many poor quality journals who in return for money help researchers fill their institutional requirements for published papers.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Cyranoski | first1 = D. | doi = 10.1038/nature.2012.10509 | title = Chinese publishers vow to cleanse journals | journal = Nature | year = 2012 | s2cid = 178903332 }}</ref> It has been suggested that intense and high profile scrutiny of publication misconduct in China is unsympathetic to the unrealistic pressures Chinese institutes place on their employees to publish, that this scrutiny is disproportionate to scrutiny of similar practices elsewhere in the world, and that this may reflect nationalist and racist biases.<ref>[https://doi.org/10.1080/18752160.2025.2482324 McLellan, Timothy. 2025. “Asian Tricks and Research Misconduct: From Orientalism and Occidentalism to Solidarity against Audit Cultures.” ''East Asian Science, Technology and Society'' doi:10.1080/18752160.2025.2482324.]</ref>

In 2022, China passed both the US and the European Union in the number of high-impact research papers published.<ref name=":02"/>