Measuring recent research performance for Chinese universities using bibliometric methods

Abstract

This paper focuses on measuring the academic research performance of Chinese universities by using Scopus database from 2007 to 2010. We have provided meaningful indicators to measure the research performance of Chinese universities as compared to world class universities of the US and the European region. Using these indicators, we first measure the quantity and quality of the research outcomes of the universities and then examine the internationalization of research by using international collaborations, international citations and international impact metrics. Using all of this data, we finally present an overall score called research performance point to measure the comprehensive research strength of the universities for the selected subject categories. The comparison identifies the gap between Chinese universities and top-tier universities from selected regions across various subject areas. We find that Chinese universities are doing well in terms of publication volume but receive less citations from their published work. We also find that the Chinese universities have relative low percentage of publications at high impact venues, which may be the reason that they are not receiving more citations. Therefore, a careful selection of publication venues may help the Chinese universities to compete with world class universities and increase their research internationalization.