The Handbook of Global Science, Technology, and Innovation

Chapter 5 Is the World of Science Moving to the East? What Bibliometrics Says

Ping Zhou and Jiang Li

With the emergence of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) in the world economy, the traditional leading roles of the West including the United States and EU nations have been challenged. China, for instance, is now the second largest economy in the world with $8.22 trillion GDP (World Bank 2013). A similar situation is happening in science and technology. On December 2, 2013, China successfully launched the Long March 3B rocket carrying the Chang’e-3 probe and Yutu lunar rover. In terms of world publications in science China has been the second largest producer since 2006 (Zhou and Leydesdorff 2008). Statistics of the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (ISTIC 2013) show that China contributed 12.08% of publications included in the Science Citation Index (SCI) of Thomson Reuters in 2012. It is clear that China has become a major player in world science (e.g., Zhou and Leydesdorff 2006; Glänzel, Debackere, and Meyer 2008; ISTIC 2013; see also Le and Tang in this volume, Chapter 2). The performance of other Asian countries, such as Japan, South Korea, and India, is also remarkable. In fact, Leydesdorff and Zhou (2005) noted the change and the possible shift of gravity center of the world science system in 2005.

Is it true that the world of science is indeed moving to the East? The current chapter will try to answer the ...