Analysis of the characteristics of innovation in highly cited papers: A case study of highly cited papers published in comprehensive agricultural science core journals in China

Abstract

Background: This paper aims to deepen the understanding of innovation in academic papers among scientific and technical (sci-tech) journal editors and authors and to promote the production of excellent papers and the improvement of academic quality of sci-tech journals. Methods: This research conducted a thorough analysis on the innovative features of 57 highly cited papers published on comprehensive agricultural science core Chinese journals from 2011 to 2020, as retrieved from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) database. The CNKI database was also used for auxiliary retrieval and verification of related information. Results: The innovative features of highly cited review papers include the application of new technologies, use of novel ideas to solve urgent major problems, and summarization for the latest international research progress. The innovative content of highly cited research papers includes achieving significant new results, opening up broad new fields, creating widely applicable new methods, and using new breakthrough methods. Conclusion: Innovation is the soul of scientific research and its resulting papers. When sci-tech journal editors select topics and review papers around these features of innovation, it can contribute to the production of high-quality, high-impact papers and enhance the academic quality of the journals.