Development of Space Medicine Research in China

Abstract

Qualitative methods were employed to analyze the bibliographic metadata of China’s pertinent professional literature to explore the nation’s devel opment of space medicine research . Official information from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure was incorporated into a relational database management system comprised of multiple, self contained tables of metadata on the scholarly articles of Chi na’s leading space medicine journal: Space Medicine & Medical Engineering . Through a sequential analytical paradigm known as TiROS (Topics and individual Researchers, Organizations, and Sponsors), descriptive statistical treatments were applied to the data of nearly 2,000 records to explore China’s development of space medicine research for transparency and knowledge about the endeavor and the community. Descriptive statistics generated through this approach resulted in data -related objects that enhanced tr ansparency and knowledge relevant to China’s space medicine research programs and initiatives. I. Introduction A significant body of published scholarly research has been developed by the People’s Republic of China. Since 1996, the China National Knowled ge Infrastructure (CNKI) – a key national project under the a uspices of the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology – has emerged as the most significant information repository for sharing academic knowledge. In particular, the digitized content of the China Academic Journal (CAJ) portion of the CNKI allows for search and retrieval of published articles from over 7,200 journals. This capability is a substantial research tool that provid es efficient means to retrieve full -text articles as well as bibliogr aphic metadata. In this regard, the CNKI exists as an important analytical mechanism to help develop transparency into China’s research components as well as increased knowledge about its greater rese arch agenda and community. II. Research Methodology An swers to many questions about Beijing ’s research into space medicine can be obtained by evaluating China’s scholarly literature on the subject. A review of individual professional journal articles result ing from space medicine research and experimentation in China allow s for singular insights into investigative projects, researchers, and organizations. In addition, articles are occasionally published in China with summary descriptions or statistical characterizations of the nation’s space medicine research from the larger perspective of s pecific programs or research discipline citations and bibliometrics. However, these approaches are insufficiently comprehensive to reflect Beijing’s larger space medicine research arrangement or to yield the requisite data t o describe the undertaking in great detail.