China overtakes US in medical research amid science balance of power shift: top publisher
Country is ‘now global leader in scientific publishing and output’, Fred Fenter, chief executive editor of Swiss-based Frontiers, says
The days when Silicon Valley and leading American universities led the way in shaping the future of science may be ending, as China overtakes the United States not only in research output but in some cutting-edge fields, according to one of the world’s leading academic publishers.
“When I looked into data from Digital Science’s Dimensions database, I can see a widening gap between China and the United States in research output.
“By 2024, Chinese researchers had published 1.1 million articles, compared to 880,000 from their US counterparts,” Fred Fenter, chief executive editor of the Switzerland-based publisher Frontiers, said in an interview.
While the US has traditionally been seen as leading in medical research, recent publishing trends tell a different story.
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“In 2023, China accounted for 40 per cent of papers in the medical field, a share that actually rose to just over 50 per cent in 2024,” Fenter said.