The rapid rise of a research nation Yingying Zhou Nature 528, S170–S173 (17 December 2015) doi:10.1038/528S170a Published online 16 December 2015 China's economic boom is mirrored by its similarly meteoric rise in high-quality science. The Nature Index shows China is already a high-quality scientific powerhouse. Since the first Nature Index database started in 2012, China's total contribution has risen to become the second largest in the world, surpassed only by the United States. But, what sets China apart is the rapid growth of its WFC. While China's contribution grew 37% from 2012 to 2014, the United States saw a 4% drop over the same period. China's booming scientific output is concentrated around specific subject areas, a trend that has continued since 2012. Chemistry and physical sciences clearly dominate the country's total publishing output in the Nature Index (see 'Chemistry champs'). The WFC figure for chemistry in 2014 was 3,783, accounting for 61% of the country's total WFC, while physical sciences made up 30% of China's publishing output in the index. By comparison, distribution of the WFC in other subject areas are represented more proportionally in other top contributing countries, such as the United States, Germany and the United Kingdom. In line with the demands of the national development strategy, China is also making efforts to innovate in relatively newer fields in life sciences and environmental sciences such as energy, water resources, agriculture, environmental protection, and human health, which were identified as research priorities in 2006 in China's 15-year plan. “Strong demand for new energy and the need to reduce pollutants emission in energy consumption will drive China's growth in environmental sciences,” anticipates Liu, whose background is in this field. Life sciences are also expected to make great advances in the near future. Between 2012 and 2014, China's output in this area grew by 30%. Fields such as genomics and protein sciences, stem cell and cloning technology, and gene therapy have already experienced significant progress. “[China is] set to become the global powerhouse of gene and protein research, leading this exciting field in life sciences and making grand discoveries with profound impacts,” He explains. Collaboration is an increasingly significant aspect of modern science and China's collaboration scores in the index reflect this trend. The recent Nature Index 2015 Collaborations supplement revealed that China's international partnerships are soaring, with its collaboration score rising 31% from 2012 to 2014. Collaboration score is the sum of the fractional counts (FC) for each of China's bilateral partnerships. Almost half of China's international collaboration score in 2014 came from partnerships with the United States. Correspondingly, China has become the United States' largest collaborator, surpassing Germany in 2014. Other important international collaborators for China are other top contributing countries to the Nature Index, such as the United Kingdom and Japan (see 'Collaboration hotspots'). http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v528/n7582_supp_ni/full/528S170a.html
The information is from Nature...surely you've heard of them. Weighted Fractional Count is their measure. http://www.natureindex.com/faq#methodology4
