Nine of the world’s top 10 research institutions are now Chinese.

The latest Nature Index rankings reveal an astonishing trend: nine of the world’s top 10 research institutions are now Chinese

To fully appreciate China’s meteoric rise, one must look back at the academic landscape a decade ago. When the Nature Index Global rankings were first released in 2014, only eight Chinese universities made it into the top 100. Today, that number has more than quintupled, with 42 Chinese institutions now ranking among the world’s best

One of the most notable policy shifts has been the move away from publication-based evaluation metrics. Previously, Chinese academics were incentivized to publish as many papers as possible, often at the expense of quality. However, recent reforms have introduced a more rigorous peer-review system that prioritizes impactful and innovative research over sheer volume. This shift has resulted in a significant improvement in the credibility and global influence of Chinese scientific output.

  • werefreeatlast@lemmy.worldEnglish
    192·
    17 hours ago

    Please, oh please do or do not research in Chinese. I’m too old to give a flying fuck. But it would be hilarious if suddenly the world had to learn Chinese to be able to use the research results.

    • Damage@feddit.itEnglish
      6·
      16 hours ago

      I’d like to learn Chinese (which one though?), but I’m afraid I never will. LLMs may help with translation, though.

      • Bartsbigbugbag@lemmy.mlEnglish
        7·
        13 hours ago

        Mandarin is the most accessible and widely spoken, Cantonese is good if you want to spend a lot of time in the south. Good luck if you want to learn one of the hundreds of other dialects, maybe make a friend from one of the places and have them help you.

  • BrightCandle@lemmy.worldEnglish
    111·
    17 hours ago

    One of the issues here is that being a Chinese paper in any field is still the most correlated with the paper being faked in some way. So while china is producing a lot of science and good science its also the world leader in garbage fake science too and it needs to get a handle on the problem.

    • Teknikal@eviltoast.orgEnglish
      12·
      19 hours ago

      Americans at least the ones on YouTube (not a fair Demographic I admit) seem in utter denial about China surpassing them in things.

      Its Taiwan I feel bad for as I don’t think the US is even capable of saving it anymore and it looks like China may have noticed.

  • AbnormalHumanBeing@lemmy.abnormalbeings.spaceEnglish
    312·
    22 hours ago

    I’m gonna be real here, just Realpolitik-wise from the perspective of “the West” sans the USA - China is currently proving that they are simply more reliable in geopolitics and even economically, and that is just damn important, even in an adversarial relationship. It isn’t even because they are a de-facto dictatorship, Russia is one too, and Russia is a mad dog. They just managed to keep their shit mostly together so far, still riding out their massive growth spurt. Even human rights abuses outside of Realpolitik don’t seem as the argument they were: internationally, the US has always had a more greyish record anyhow. But now, considering the US is quickly doing its best to catch up in domestic tyranny, that argument seems to be going fast, too.

    Sadly, I don’t have huge hopes for China to be a proper “better” hegemon globally, if that should be what ultimately happens - they are facing crises of their own, and have been dabbling in their own brands of economic imperialism, and at least the way their military is gearing up contains a lot of stuff usually used for military imperialism as well.

    • arafatknee@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      26·
      21 hours ago

      The US has been a brutal empire to anyone outside the supplicant, mostly white European, nations of the West.

      The kicker is the US has no one to blame for it’s decline but itself. It has descended into a techno-military industrial oligarchy addicted to Eurodollar deficit spending and cheap credit. It burned up the global order it created in pointless wars in the Middle East and supporting it’s genocidal settler colony in Palestine.

      Once countries transition away from using the dollar it is really fucked.

    • Not_mikey@slrpnk.netEnglish
      7·
      19 hours ago

      And deport all the PHDs who criticize it. That’ll get us back in the top spot academically.

  • Rolder@reddthat.comEnglish
    1011·
    19 hours ago

    Just don’t research or publish anything that might make the CCP look bad!