The Contribution of Chinese Diaspora Researchers to Global Science and China's Catching Up in Scientific Research

Abstract

China-born scientists and engineers who conduct their research outside China, the diaspora researchers of our title, contributed to global science through the exceptional quantity and quality of their scientific work and through distinctive connections to China-based researchers and research. Analysis of the Scopus database of English language scientific journal articles shows that Chinese diaspora research publications are a substantial and growing proportion of global scientific publications, receive an above average number of citations per article, and are published at above average rates in high Scopus CiteScore journals. In addition, diaspora researchers helped China advance to the forefront of science through collaboration on papers with China-based researchers and through the citation network linking China-based research to research outside the country.