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Point out that even with many serious citations, the paper is not about who the correct scientist is.

A calm look at the two "world's fifth" 2010-03-08 07:58 Liberation Daily

Our reporter Xu Ruizhe

China has recently won one after another The two “fifth places in the world” are both quantitative rankings of internationally influential institutions and organizations: First, according to Thomson-Reuters Group data, China ranks “fifth in the world” in the number of published scientific research papers; second, in the world’s intellectual property According to organizational data, China’s number of international patent applications ranks “fifth in the world”.

Assessing the level of scientific and technological development of various countries based on the total amount, China’s strength is indeed extraordinary; but a closer look at the two lists shows that the “quality ranking” of China’s scientific and technological indicators is not ideal, and it faces “out of sync” between quantity and quality. The embarrassment of "different speeds".

The number of citations of a single paper is "failed"

The "Ranking of the Top 20 Countries (Regions) with Paper Publishments in the Past Ten Years" released by Thomson-Reuters Group, including the publication of papers There are three individual indicators: total number, total number of citations and number of citations of a single paper. According to the ranking of "total number of papers", the United States, Japan, Germany, England, and China occupy the top five positions. Among them, the United States published more than 2.97 million papers included in SCI (Science Citation Index), which is three times that of Japan, which ranked second. China published more than 650,000 SCI papers in the same period.

Scientific research papers are valuable because they contribute proven experimental and theoretical results to the scientific community. These results can be repeatedly cited by scientists from other countries as new scientific arguments. Just like "famous quotes" are always quoted frequently, the greater the number of citations of a paper, the greater its influence. Generally speaking, important papers by Nobel Prize winners can be cited hundreds to thousands of times in a single article.

In this ranking, based on the "total number of citations" of the paper, the top four countries (regions) mentioned above are still among the top four, but the rankings have changed slightly, followed by the United States and Germany. , Britain, and Japan; and the original "old five" China was not only replaced by France, but also "laggarded" along the way, falling behind Canada, Italy, and the Netherlands, ranking ninth. It can be seen that China’s huge total number of papers still guarantees a relatively large total number of citations.

However, upon further inspection of the "number of citations per paper" - the indicator that best reflects the quality of a paper, the original ranking was greatly disrupted. Papers published in Switzerland were cited an average of 15.73 times, the highest; American papers were "large in quantity" and also "high in quality", with more than 15 citations per paper, ranking second; followed by Denmark, the Netherlands, and Scotland , England, etc. China's "number of citations per article" did not cross the "minimum threshold" for inclusion in the list - 10.52 times per article, with an average of only 5.24 times, slightly higher than India (5.08 times).

It should be noted that this "hard indicator" of Chinese papers has entered the "5 times" range from "4.6 times" in the 2008 ranking. Although this is still far behind the world average of "10 times", it is "not easy" to achieve such an improvement in just one year - Wu Yishan, chief engineer of the China Institute of Scientific and Technological Information, commented.

The number of companies entering the top 100 patents is only single digits

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) recently released the 2009 international patent application data, showing that the organization received *** There were 155,900 international patent applications. Among them, the United States has applied for 45,800 patents, still ranking first in the world, accounting for about 30% of the global share. Japan ranks second with 29,800 pieces; Germany ranks third with 16,700 pieces; South Korea ranks ahead of China with a slight advantage, with 8,066 pieces; China ranks fifth in the world with a total of 7,946 pieces, leading France, UK, Netherlands, Switzerland and Sweden.

The ranking of China’s patent applications increased by one place compared with the previous year, and the number grew rapidly. Due to the impact of the international financial crisis, the number of global patent applications fell last year for the first time in 30 years. However, China's applications bucked the trend and increased by about 30% year-on-year, ranking first among major countries in the world.

China’s patents are both “quantity” and “speed”, but the situation of enterprises, the “subjects” of patent applications, is not very optimistic. Taking the global corporate patent rankings as an example, Japan's Panasonic Corporation has become the "patent king", applying for 1,891 patents in 2009, accounting for 6% of Japan's national patents.

Francis Gurry, Director General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, disclosed that among the top 20 companies with the most patent applications, almost all are American, Japanese and European companies.

Currently, among the top 100 companies in the world in terms of patent applications, Chinese companies are still in single digits, and only a few "old faces" such as Huawei, ZTE, Datang Telecom, and Tencent can enter the top 200. Among them, Huawei is particularly outstanding, following Panasonic with 1,847 international patents, becoming the "runner-up" in annual applications. But if we think calmly from a national perspective, Huawei alone accounts for a quarter of China's international patents. If ZTE, another company in Shenzhen, is added, the two account for 40% of the country. This cannot but be said to be "too concentrated." "Yes.

The structure of papers and patents is unbalanced

As a late-developing country, the "increment" of China's science and technology is very large - the Thomson-Reuters Group reported that the number of papers in China today is 64 times that of the early 1980s. At this rate, China will surpass the United States in 2020 and become the world's largest scientific research country. The Financial Times also predicted that China will replace the United States in 2020 based on the growth rate of China's international patent applications. , becoming the world’s largest scientific and intellectual property power.

It may not be difficult to be the "number one country" because China has a huge scientific research population, and due to the stimulating effect of the scientific and technological system evaluation mechanism, papers and patents have always been linked to factors such as professional titles, salaries, and project reviews. This is also the "booster" for their rapid growth. The "Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 Report" released by the National Science Foundation of the United States pointed out that China currently has approximately 1.42 million scientific researchers, and its expansion rate is more than twice that of the United States. However, for every 1,000 employed people in China, there are only about 2 scientific researchers, which is far from the "7.2 people" in Germany, a technological powerhouse.

Therefore, we must not be fooled by these two "world's fifth" rankings. With its numerical advantage and latecomer effect, it should not be a problem for China to surpass various technological powers in a short period of time. The key is to pay more attention to the inherent quality of papers and patents, especially the imbalance of the structure.

Neither papers nor patents are the final products of science and technology. Some people write papers for the sake of writing papers, and apply for patents for the purpose of applying for patents. The success rate of achievement transformation is not high, and the industrialization efficiency is not high. Data released by the State Intellectual Property Office show that the number of domestic patent applications in Shanghai reached 62,000 in 2009, ranking fifth in the country, but the patent conversion rate is only about 10%. At the same time, the "quality" of China's patents is still insufficient: the most valuable "invention patents" accounted for only a quarter of the country's various patents in 2009; China's most patented variety is "design patents", accounting for about 1/4 of global registrations. Measure 1/4.

China’s papers and patents also show an imbalance in subject areas. According to statistics from the China Institute of Scientific and Technological Information, there are more papers in the fields of chemistry, computers, physics, and materials science, while there are significantly fewer papers in the fields of immunology, psychology, microbiology, social sciences, and agriculture. A report from the World Intellectual Property Organization states that my country's patent research and development capabilities in biotechnology, drugs, transportation and other technical fields lag far behind those of developed countries. At the same time, the geographical distribution of patents is also uneven. Last year, the number of international patent applications from Shenzhen reached more than 3,800, accounting for nearly half of the country's total.

Perhaps, the latest "Assessment of China's Position and Influence in World Science" completed by the China Institute of Science and Technology Information is more objective: the influence of Chinese science in the world is still not high, ranking among 19 major countries 13. “China still has a long way to go before it can truly surpass the traditional scientific power.”

The debate over "undergraduate thesis preservation and abolition" originated from a statement by Zhang Xiaoyuan, director of the Journalism Department of the School of Literature and Journalism of Sichuan University. He believes that the knowledge learned by undergraduate journalism majors cannot meet the requirement of "unique insights in a certain field" for the thesis. In order to complete the task, students have to copy and paste a lot. His views are supported by many netizens. In a survey conducted by a certain website, nearly eight times as many people were in favor of canceling the "undergraduate thesis" as opposed to opponents. A professor at the Chengdu University of Electronic Science and Technology who did not want to be named also said bluntly: "If you look at those 'shooter' advertisements on campus before graduation, you will know whether the current college thesis is still meaningful." A student said frankly that the thesis defense teacher wanted to Let most people pass and turn a blind eye to students' plagiarism. The defense has become a procedure for students to graduate and is just a formality. Even the heads of some news units agree to cancel the undergraduate thesis for journalism majors.

They believe that canceling undergraduate thesis is not only because it is "too watery", but also to solve the problem of serious disconnect between university education and practice.