China narrows US' scientific research lead

China and the United States vied for the top spot across research fronts in 11 major scientific fields, with the US achieving only a marginal edge in overall performance, a report released recently said.

The annual report, which was published by the Institutes of Science and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National Science Library of CAS, along with global analytics company Clarivate, based its data on highly cited research papers published between 2019 and 2024.

China ranked first in six major scientific fields, namely agricultural, plant and animal sciences; ecology and environmental sciences; chemistry and materials science; physics; information science; and economics, psychology and other social sciences.

In research areas where China is relatively weaker, such as clinical medicine and astronomy and astrophysics, it ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, but showed significant improvement compared with the past.

The US led in five major scientific fields, namely geosciences, clinical medicine, biological sciences, astronomy and astrophysics, and mathematics. It also ranked second in the remaining six fields, making its overall fundamental research activity strongest globally, but the gap with China has significantly narrowed.

"When considered alongside previous reports, the trend of the US and China advancing side by side is becoming increasingly prominent," the report said, noting that the United Kingdom and Germany form the second tier of countries in terms of advancements made in major scientific studies.

Pan Jiaofeng, president of the Institutes of Science and Development, said the report raises new questions and challenges for the integrated development of science and technology, the economy, and various other fields.

"A new round of scientific and technological revolution is happening and the frontiers of scientific research are constantly evolving. Cutting-edge topics such as high-throughput single-cell technologies, dark matter detection, and the deep integration of artificial intelligence into scientific research and engineering practices have drawn widespread attention," he said.

Emmanuel Thiveaud, vice-president of Clarivate, praised China's progress in cutting-edge scientific research.

"Over the past decades, we have witnessed the tremendous progress China has made and continues to make in research and development," he said. "It's not surprising that China is already at the forefront of many research fronts."

Thiveaud highlighted the increasing influence of Chinese scientific research, citing another report released by Clarivate weeks ago.

According to that report, the Chinese mainland continues to rank second in the number of highly cited scholars among around 7,000 scholars who were selected based on their highly cited papers over the past 11 years.

Thiveaud emphasized the importance of releasing these annual reports, as they can guide the course of scientific research and keep policymakers informed.

"Such research comes with more process to envision the future of natural and social sciences by identifying hot and emerging research areas," he said, adding that AI has become pivotal to empowering emerging fields.

Yang Fan, deputy director of the Institutes of Science and Development, highlighted the deep multidisciplinary integration of scientific research.

Across the 11 major scientific fields, the joint report identified 110 active and 18 emerging research fronts, with more than half of the emerging research fronts being related to AI, especially in clinical medicine and life sciences, Yang said.

Li Shao, a tenured professor at Tsinghua University and director of the university's Institute of TCM-X, noted that four of the seven emerging research fronts in clinical medicine are related to the use of large language models in healthcare.

Li underscored the significant role of AI in the targeted treatment of lifestyle diseases and the prevention of major diseases, particularly in the traditional Chinese medicine sector.

Targeted algorithms are needed to support research on disease mechanisms, early disease screening and precise treatment, which can accelerate the translation of research results and benefit the public, he said.

limenghan@chinadaily.com.cn