Society

China's academic influence rises in last decade

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-23 20:40

BEIJING - China has produced more and better quality academic theses in the last decade, said a science official on Monday.

From 2000 to 2009, statistics show that 659,000 Chinese science and technology theses were published in respected academic publications, ranking the fifth country in the world,  Zhang Xian'en, director of the Department of Basic Research of the Ministry of Science and Technology, said during a conference on the country's basic research work.

Statistics also show that since 2008, China has risen to second in the world in the number of theses indexed by the Science Citation Index (SCI), a world leading thesis index system, with the amount in last year surpassing 150,000, according to Zhang.

This indicates a growth in China's academic influence in the world, Zhang said.

"Moreover, Chinese scientists in the past decade have published over 550 theses on nature and science in world-class magazines," Zhang said, noting that 6 percent of the theses published in leading specialist journals on major subjects were written by Chinese scientists.

Chinese scientists in the last 10 years have also won various international awards and played increasingly active roles in international academic organizations," Zhang said.