Diversified growth and diversifying research strengths

In recent decades, Chinese science has been characterized by fast growth and a dominance of chemistry over life sciences. These generalizations would seem to persist in CAS’s research performance, but, a closer look suggests a trend towards diversification, with some applied research fields emerging as new strengths.

Top research fields: more than chemistry

The assessment of research output is typically, first, a volume game. This certainly gives an edge to an institution as large as CAS. According to journal publication data tracked in Digital Science’s Dimensions database, CAS has published nearly 320,000 papers in the scientific literature from 2008 to 2018 — more than any other research institution in the world.

Looking at the broad fields¹, it is no surprise that CAS has published most in the chemical sciences, amounting to nearly 91,000 papers in 2008-2018. Engineering is the second most common field, with a cumulative total of more than 83,000 papers. As with chemistry, it accounts for more than one quarter of CAS’s total output (Figure 1). Biological sciences papers are the third most common field, accounting for around 17% of output. Physical and Earth sciences round out the top five subjects.

The strength in the applied field of engineering might be surprising, given that CAS is usually considered a specialist in basic natural science research, but this is a misconception. CAS’s research has always supported social development and industrial growth. Its research fuelled the development of China’s first computer; led to the establishment of the country’s internet information centre; and has informed a number of chemical engineering technologies, which in turn led to new drugs. CAS research even helped to inform China’s manned space mission.

In 2014, CAS put even greater emphasis on applied science. Responding to a national call for science and technology reform to better address industrial and economic development needs, CAS launched the Pioneer Initiative, part of which includes establishing a series of Innovative Academies. With a focus on mission-oriented research, these institutions, which are usually based on some existing CAS research institutes, seek to promote industrially applicable innovation in areas with commercial potential.

Dimensions data indicated that today 24 CAS institutes have an explicit engineering focus, including ones with a focus on microelectronics, mechanics, engineering thermophysics, remote sensing and digital Earth, biomedical engineering, and space utilization technologies. They may also collaborate under the umbrella of the Innovative Academies, both in research publications and commercialization.

In the realm of chemical sciences, China has a long history of strength here, particularly in organic chemistry and synthesis. It has topped the Nature Index in organic chemistry since 2015². Research from this field also plays a crucial role in many industrial processes with a number of uses, from synthetic drugs and food products, to polymer materials and catalysts for energy and chemical engineering industries. This helps explain why there might be only 10 CAS institutes with an explicit focus on chemical sciences but the chemistry output is so big. In fact, there are many other CAS institutes, including those in physical, biological and medical sciences, as well as engineering, that also produce papers with a chemistry component, even if it is not their main focus.

By contrast, Dimensions identified 20 CAS institutes for biological sciences, suggesting an emerging emphasis on this field. Life science research is relatively new in China, and is still developing. A larger accumulative output of biological than physical sciences indicates a healthy upwards trajectory of research for the former.

Strong growth: potential for applied fields

Over the past 10 years, CAS’s research performance is a story of growth. From a baseline of less than 16,000 papers in 2008, its output has nearly tripled to more than 46,000 papers in 2018, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11%. The highest growth rates are observed in several applied science fields, hinting at future potential.

CAS’s fastest growth is in information and computing science, with a CAGR of 18%. The growth of the field came off a low baseline of only 450 papers in 2008, but it outpaces other fields with similarly low baselines. The finding points to the rising importance of information and computing science as central to China’s high-tech industry, including the emerging field of artificial intelligence. While publication alone does not represent innovation capacity, the high growth is indicative of CAS’s increasing potential to drive information technology innovations.

Medical and health sciences have also seen strong growth: output was below 1,000 papers in 2008, tripling to more than 3,300 in 2018, a CAGR of 13%. Growth in these applied sciences — allied with strength in engineering — aligns with the Chinese government’s emphasis on research with immediate industrial application.

Of CAS’s top five disciplines, Earth sciences, with the lowest baseline, have grown fastest, with a CAGR of nearly 13% over the past 10 years (Figure 2). This growth coincides with a Strategic Priority Research Programme (‘Priority’ programme) launched by CAS in 2012 for wide ranging geological, environmental/ecological investigations on the Tibetan Plateau. Among other elements, the programme has investigated how the India-Asia collision led to the formation of Tibetan Plateau, and how animals’ evolution there diverged from those in other regions. By the end of 2015, the project had produced more than 500 papers³.

To build on these discoveries, several CAS institutes, including the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research and the Institute of Geology and Geophysics, established the Center for Excellence in Tibetan Plateau Earth Sciences in 2014. Such centres of excellence are part of CAS’s efforts to strengthen its frontier sciences by bringing together its multidisciplinary resources.

Chemical sciences and engineering, the two fields with the largest volume of research, also have above-average growth rates, meaning they will stay dominant for years to come. Particularly, the strong growth of engineering reinforces the increasing weight of this applied field in CAS’s research landscape.

Both physical and biological sciences have below-average growth rates, though the number of papers has risen overall. The percentage share of output for both these disciplines has also fallen, partly a reflection of the growing diversity in CAS’s research output.

High-quality research: growth accelerated

Research strength is not just represented by quantity of output, but also quality. Nature Index is a curated list of 82 journals that serves as a proxy for high-quality research output. CAS’s publications in Nature Index journals represented just over 8% of total output in 2008. By 2018, high-quality papers accounted for 12% of total output. The number of high-quality papers had more than quadrupled, growing at an adjusted CAGR of 13%, which is significantly higher than the CAGR for CAS’s overall research.

In these Nature Index journals, chemistry accounts for more than 44% of all CAS’s high-quality papers. Physical sciences are the second most common at around 34%. Engineering papers are only 16% of the total (Figure 3).

Applied subjects, such as engineering, are not as well represented in the life-sciences heavy Nature Index as in the general scientific literature. Much of the engineering in the Nature Index journals likely supports more advanced basic research. Given that CAS’s high-quality engineering output is growing at an above-average rate, it follows that many of those innovations will be supporting growth in other areas of CAS’s natural science research.

Of the top five broad fields, biological sciences have grown faster than the average for high-quality output (Figure 4). Given that biological science growth overall at CAS is low, this higher rate suggests that each additional paper in this field contains notable research. It is also possible that as the field is becoming more competitive, CAS researchers in biological sciences tend to aim only for high-quality publications.

An indicator of CAS’s efforts to boost its high-quality biological sciences research is that, of the 13 established centres of excellence, three relate to biology, with focuses on molecular plant sciences, biological macromolecules and molecular cell biology. These centres employ cutting-edge biotechnologies, such as gene editing, to explore plant physiology and ecology, and to examine the molecular mechanisms of biological activities.

Outside the top five, one of the strongest growth rates is, once again, in medical and health sciences, with a 10-year CAGR of nearly 19%. Of all of CAS’s medical and health science papers, those considered high quality have grown from less than 5% to over 9% from 2008 to 2018 (Figure 5).

This field, as with biological sciences, has benefited in recent years from increased funding. Health-related research, particularly in cancer, has become popular. Two of the three centres of excellence in biological sciences have put a greater focus on population health. Moreover, as more scientists return to China from countries such as the United States, their experience in life sciences and medical research has boosted CAS’s ability to undertake and publish ground-breaking research in this field.