China dominates new academic rankings based on open-access research

[Pelican Press 0]

China dominates new academic rankings based on open-access research

Credit: The Conversation

University leaders pay close attention to comparative rankings such as those offered by

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,

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and

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. Rankings influence student matriculation numbers, attract talented faculty and

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.

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, and

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, but rankings are influential.

A ******** shift in the data underlying rankings is about to upend the rankings world—largely in favor of China’s position.

For instance, in early 2024, the Leiden University Center for Science and Technology Studies

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issued new university rankings that add open-data sources to the traditional curated list of elite journals that has been the standard. The results show a world turned upside down for university rankings.

Where once the list of universities with the highest scientific impact would have been Oxford, Stanford, Harvard and MIT, the new top 10 list of universities with high scientific impact includes eight universities from China. Only Harvard and the University of Toronto hold onto a top-10 spot.

What does this transformation mean for understanding scholarly excellence? I study the global research system and its contribution to social ********.

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, propelled by investments in research and university strength, has

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. Concerns are mounting that the

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to an assertive rival, with potential implications for national security, economic standing and global influence. These new rankings will likely raise even more alarm.

Broader range of more sources

The rankings programs draw heavily upon quantitative assessments called “indicators.” A glance at the influential ShanghaiRanking criteria shows the

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“papers indexed in major citation indices.” The popular indices draw from a highly curated set of scholarly journals such as

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,

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and

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. The most reputed index collecting information on these and other journals is the

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‘s Science Citation Index, or SCI, a product of careful standardization and data enrichment by

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.

SCI represents

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, though. Among other

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, many people decry the SCI’s exclusivity and its perceived

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.

But careful curation makes it the gold standard of academic indexing and one that journals and authors aspire to join. Its value is in its replicability: It is possible to dip into it multiple times using different search strategies and produce comparable results.

Reliance on curated databases is about to end with the introduction of rankings based on open data like that collected by

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. OpenAlex claims to include over 100,000 journals—of highly varying quality and editorial practices—compared with SCI’s 9,200. All data in OpenAlex has been

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with the laudable goal of making research freely available to all. The downside is that this wider net sweeps in

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that exploit researchers and undermine the quality and integrity of scholarly communication.

Reflecting China’s research productivity

The volume of scholarly articles represented in the open databases has a mighty influence on China’s position in the open-source rankings. ******** scholars produce a vast body of written work, some in English, some in ********; estimates of percentage shares for language range widely, but hover around 50-50. As China has

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capacity, many more people turn out scholarly articles.

From a very small number in the 1980s,

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by 2023, based on UNESCO data. China’s scholarly output of scientific and engineering articles shows a very rapid rise since the 1990s, with growth outpacing all other nations. Quality has lagged quantity, but China is outproducing the ******* States in the total number of scientific publications in the Web of Science, by my count—a shift in leadership not seen since the U.S. overtook the U.K. in 1948.

Although the numbers are dated, when

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, my colleague and I estimated that between 2000 and 2009, China published around 1 million scientific papers that were not captured by the Web of Science. That means they didn’t “count” toward traditional rankings. These publications are counted in the new open databases. Many of the papers included in open-source or open-access journals will not be considered of high quality; nonetheless, they become part of the written record.

Open-access publishing services have grown rapidly and offer fast publication times, but there are questions about the quality of their journals. Open publishing services

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have an outsized number of ******** contributors compared to those from other countries.

The open-access services often include content from potential paper mills, businesses manufacturing what look like scholarly manuscripts for *****. Despite concerns about the reputation and editorial practices of these publishers and editors, there’s little oversight. These services are flooding the publishing world with vast numbers of lower-quality articles.

******** researchers and their sponsoring institutions put a huge premium on publishing in international journals, even those hosted by questionable publishers.

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—when authors cite the works of co-nationals to raise their citation profiles—skew counts to enhance China’s performance.

China is attempting to address malign practices. To its credit, China’s government recently announced the

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with a ******** author or co-author. Efforts are underway to enhance quality. Governmental payments to researchers for articles in

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.

Despite the quality questions, the numbers alone will push China up the rankings lists. This rapid shift will enhance China’s position relative to the rest of the world. In itself, the rise does not reflect a change in quality, status or output, but it will continue to stoke the fires of

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, technology and innovation circles, and perhaps put rankings further into question.

Provided by
The Conversation

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under a Creative Commons license. Read the

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China dominates new academic rankings based on open-access research (2024, April 3)
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