Chinese institutes in materials science

Rank in China	Rank in World	Journal	Papers	Citations	Citations per paper
1	185	Chinese University of Hong Kong	319	3,375	10.58
2	188	City University of Hong Kong	1,345	14,185	10.55
3	203	Peking University	1,006	9,944	9.88
4	212	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	714	6,931	9.71
5	220	Fudan University	920	8,853	9.62
6	233	University of Hong Kong	573	5,376	9.38
7	241	University of Science and Technology of China	1,674	15,397	9.20
8	315	Nanjing University	1,238	9.912	8.01
9	392	Nankai University	371	2,629	7.09
10	404	Jilin University	1,866	12,919	6.92
11	435	Chinese Academy of Sciences	13,826	89,837	6.50
12	445	Tsing Hua University	4,353	,8	6.39
13	488	Southwest Jiaotong University	366	2,132	5.83
14	500	Hong Kong Polytechnic University	1,579	8,887	5.63
15	512	Wuhan University	668	3,587	5.37
16	515	Zhejiang University	2,540	13,596	5.35
17	550	East China University of Science and Technology	597	2,817	4.72
18	551	Beijing University of Chemical Technology	460	2,168	4.71
19	553	Lanzhou University	603	2,807	4.66
20	564	Hefei University of Technology	317	1,384	4.37

China’s remarkable rise on the global landscape of scientific research is illustrated by its share of research papers in the internationally influential journals indexed by Thomson Reuters: in 2000, China contributed approximately 4 per cent of the world’s science publications whereas in 2009 China’s share reached nearly 11 per cent. China is now second to the United States in output. In terms of citation impact (citations per paper), the improvement has been more moderate: in 2000, papers by Chinese researchers were cited about half as often as the world average, while in 2009 this figure was about three-quarters of the world average. An increase in citation impact typically lags a rise in output.

National performance statistics, however, can sometimes mask outstanding performance of individual research institutions in a country. In the table above are listed some Chinese research institutions in the field of materials science, 1999-2009, ranked by citation impact. The average for Chinese papers in this field over this period was 4.41. The world average was 6.44. Thus, the institutions ranked 19th and above exceeded the average for China, and the institutions ranked 11th and above exceeded the world average in this field. The world ranking for each institution in Essential Science Indicators is also provided in the table.

It should be noted that a total of 619 institutions are listed in Essential Science Indicators for materials science, among those that produced at least 100 papers over the period. Only those institutions that rank in the top 1 per cent by total citations are presented in the database.

The top-ranked institutions for China reveal four in Hong Kong as well as two world-class institutions – Peking University and the University of Science and Technology of China in Hefei – that frequently turn up among Chinese institutions exhibiting the highest citations per paper performance in specific scientific fields.