In 2002, the number of theses from China published in international journals and conferences exceeded 77,000. Both the number of papers cited and times of citation saw an increase of over 30 percent than the previous year.

The output of international sci-tech papers from China (including journal papers and conference ones) has been making a great step forward annually. Information from the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China on December 9 showed that China had, after surpassing Italy and Canada in 2001, outdone France in 2002 to the fifth place in the world in regard with the number of scientific and technological treatise.

The statistics and analyses on China's scientific and technological papers in 2002 made by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China showed that papers published by Chinese science and technology staff in the international scientific and technological circle indicated a sharp increase in number. There were a total of 77,395 papers included in the three internationally large index systems, Science Citation Index (SCI), Engineering Index (EI), and Index to Scientific and Technical Proceedings (ISTP), an increase of 19.9 percent than the year 2001. The number of China's scientific and technological papers accounted for 5.37 percent of the world total, up 0.97 percentage point as against the previous year, following only the United States, Japan, Britain and Germany.

Among the 77,000 papers, 40,758 papers were included by Science Citation Index which mainly represents the basic research situation, an increase of 14 percent than the year 2001, making China jump from the eighth to the sixth place in the world. 23,224 papers were included in Engineering Index which represents the research situation of engineering sciences, an increase of 25 percent, pushing China from the third place in the world to the second. According to statistics in the Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings, China contributed in 2002 13,413 papers at international conferences, 3,150 more than the year 2001 from the world sixth to the fifth.

As regards the citations, the number of papers cited from China showed an increase from 18,358 in 2001 to 24,154 in 2002 while the times of citation from 38,827 to 51,766, up 31.6 and 33.3 percent respectively, higher than the increase in terms of the number. This shows an advance in quality of China's scientific and technological papers in one point of view.

(People's Daily December 11, 2003)