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A Novel Metric for Assessing National Strength in Scientific Research: Understanding China's Research Output in Quantum Technology through Collaboration

Yuqi Wang
Yuqi Wang
, 
Yue Chen
Yue Chen
, 
Zhiqi Wang
Zhiqi Wang
, 
Kang Wang
Kang Wang
 and 
Kai Song
Kai Song
   | Oct 14, 2022
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Article Category: Research Paper
Published Online: Oct 14, 2022
Page range: 39 - 60
Received: May 24, 2022
Accepted: Sep 19, 2022
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2022-0019
Keywords
© 2022 Yuqi Wang et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

The growth trend of papers of quantum technology by China, USA, and Europe.Note: The dotted line without dots is the predicted value in the cumulative growth curve.
The growth trend of papers of quantum technology by China, USA, and Europe.Note: The dotted line without dots is the predicted value in the cumulative growth curve.

Figure 2

Research collaboration strength network in the field of quantum technology.Note: The nodes represent countries that have published papers in quantum technology. The edges represent the scientific collaboration between countries. The weights of the edges represent the strength of collaboration between countries calculated by the Salton formula (Salton, 1983). The node size represents the size of the betweenness centrality of a country, and the larger the node, the more collaboration resources the country controls. The thickness of the lines represents the collaboration strength, and the thicker the lines, the stronger the collaboration strength between the two countries. We selected 53 countries based on their collaboration strength (> 0.06).
Research collaboration strength network in the field of quantum technology.Note: The nodes represent countries that have published papers in quantum technology. The edges represent the scientific collaboration between countries. The weights of the edges represent the strength of collaboration between countries calculated by the Salton formula (Salton, 1983). The node size represents the size of the betweenness centrality of a country, and the larger the node, the more collaboration resources the country controls. The thickness of the lines represents the collaboration strength, and the thicker the lines, the stronger the collaboration strength between the two countries. We selected 53 countries based on their collaboration strength (> 0.06).

Figure 3

Changes in the contribution of China and the US in developed and developing countries.Note: The first column on the left represents the developed countries’ contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020. The second column on the left represents the USA's contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020. The first column on the right represents the developing countries’ contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020. The second column on the right represents China's contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020.
Changes in the contribution of China and the US in developed and developing countries.Note: The first column on the left represents the developed countries’ contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020. The second column on the left represents the USA's contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020. The first column on the right represents the developing countries’ contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020. The second column on the right represents China's contribution proportion from 2001 to 2020.

Figure 4

The time trend of national scientific self-reliance index (SR).
The time trend of national scientific self-reliance index (SR).

Figure 5

The time trend of national rankings based on scientific research strength index (SS).
The time trend of national rankings based on scientific research strength index (SS).

Top 10 countries with the highest number of papers in quantum technology (a) and China's research collaboration layout (b).

Distribution of the number of countries with AutonomyChina→countries.

AutonomyChina→countries > 0 AutonomyChina→countries < 0 AutonomyChina→countries = 0
Developed countries (31) 28 2 1
Developing countries (68) 42 11 15

Ranking of academic contribution (CT) in global quantum technology.

No. Country CT Contribution proportion No. Country CT Contribution proportion
1 USA 1,593,667.96 30.57% 75 Cameroon 364.35 0.007%
2 China 639,792.41 12.28% 76 Iceland 358.65 0.007%
3 Germany 471,644.89 9.05% 77 Moldova 332.54 0.006%
4 England 317,155.23 6.08% 78 Indonesia 326.91 0.006%
5 Japan 230,317.08 4.42% 79 Ethiopia 294.08 0.006%
6 Italy 199,203.76 3.82% 80 Philippines 291.82 0.006%
7 France 198,179.40 3.80% 81 Czechoslovakia 281.92 0.005%
8 Canada 163,038.66 3.13% 82 Kazakhstan 238.84 0.005%
9 Austria 154,559.69 2.96% 83 Jordan 213.80 0.004%
10 Switzerland 135,561.92 2.60% 84 Kuwait 206.25 0.004%
11 Spain 113,040.28 2.17% 85 Sri Lanka 200.63 0.004%
12 Australia 111,733.35 2.14% 86 Oman 196.78 0.004%
13 India 91,204.80 1.75% 87 Lebanon 162.98 0.003%
14 Netherlands 80,271.91 1.54% 88 Malta 155.93 0.003%
15 South Korea 62,339.05 1.20% 89 Brunei 98.70 0.002%
16 Russia 61,630.01 1.18% 90 Azerbaijan 92.67 0.002%
17 Israel 60,244.46 1.16% 91 Palestine 83.25 0.002%
18 Poland 51,529.10 0.99% 92 Macedonia 81.75 0.002%
19 Sweden 46,708.93 0.90% 93 Vatican 74.46 0.001%
20 Brazil 41,762.49 0.80% 94 Bosnia & Herceg 72.07 0.001%
... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...
74 Bahrain 368.82 0.007% 147 Eritrea 0.23 0.000004%

Distribution of the proportion of papers in the five dominance patterns of DominantChina→countries.

China Strongly dominant Substrongly dominant Dominant Subweakly dominant Weakly dominant
Developed Countries 64.13% 1.64% 1.01% 1.26% 31.96%
USA 79.99% 2.39% 0.65% 1.30% 15.66%
Germany 66.77% 0.81% 1.21% 0.70% 30.51%
England 63.17% 1.02% 1.89% 0.87% 33.04%
Japan 67.23% 1.38% 0.61% 2.60% 28.18%
France 41.99% 1.10% 1.38% 1.10% 54.42%
Italy 49.40% 5.22% 0.80% 2.01% 42.57%
Canada 69.73% 1.44% 1.26% 1.08% 26.49%
Developing Countries 29.75% 0.51% 1.06% 1.24% 67.44%
India 42.52% 2.80% 1.40% 2.34% 50.93%
Russia 31.58% 0.38% 1.88% 0.75% 65.41%

Ranking of scientific research strength index (SS) in global quantum technology.

No. Country SR SS No. Country SR SS
1 USA 0.54 853,088.21 75 Philippines 0.22 63.31
2 China 0.77 493,650.57 76 Moldova 0.19 61.86
3 Germany 0.36 170,519.88 77 Indonesia 0.16 51.88
4 Japan 0.59 136,364.59 78 Macedonia 0.62 50.78
5 England 0.33 105,841.36 79 Kazakhstan 0.21 49.26
6 Italy 0.42 84,291.22 80 Jordan 0.21 45.08
7 India 0.70 63,615.28 81 Cuba 0.07 41.72
8 France 0.32 63,100.22 82 Qatar 0.03 35.43
9 Canada 0.34 54,791.26 83 Jamaica 0.61 34.89
10 Austria 0.28 43,443.24 84 Serbia Monteneg 0.53 30.53
11 Switzerland 0.28 37,720.08 85 Bahrain 0.08 29.09
12 Australia 0.33 36,955.01 86 Oman 0.14 27.10
13 Spain 0.31 34,742.01 87 Sri Lanka 0.12 24.12
14 South Korea 0.55 34,124.41 88 Brunei 0.24 23.50
15 Russia 0.46 28,491.90 89 North Korea 0.33 23.45
16 Iran 0.77 23,826.65 90 Malta 0.14 21.40
17 Israel 0.37 22,480.51 91 North Macedonia 0.29 19.60
18 Netherlands 0.27 21,887.75 92 Lebanon 0.10 15.97
19 Brazil 0.52 21,704.77 93 Bosnia & Herceg 0.15 11.01
20 Poland 0.41 20,901.86 94 Azerbaijan 0.10 9.32
… … … … … … … …
74 Cyprus 0.08 29.09 147 Panama −0.08 −5.01

Five dominance patterns of Dominanti→j.

Collaboration patterns Dominant country Largest contributing country Subordinate country Weight
Strongly dominant i i j 5/15
Substrongly dominant i j 4/15
Dominant i j 3/15
Subweakly dominant i j 2/15
Weakly dominant i j 1/15

j.jdis-2022-0019.apptab.001

Country Number of Papers Zero citation Papers Proportion
USA 40,906 2,224 5.44%
Peoples R China 40,180 4,876 12.14%
Germany 18,633 748 4.01%
England 11,904 441 3.70%
Japan 11,726 958 8.17%
Italy 8,937 492 5.51%
India 7,394 906 12.25%
Russia 6,252 721 11.53%
Brazil 3,520 316 8.98%
Iran 3,061 427 13.95%

Statistics of the network centrality for the top 10 countries with the highest betweenness centrality in quantum technology.

No. Country Betweenness Centrality Degree Centrality Closeness Centrality
1 France 0.0700 106 0.7650
2 South Africa 0.0607 90 0.7083
3 USA 0.0594 111 0.7846
4 Germany 0.0518 106 0.7650
5 Spain 0.0516 94 0.7183
6 China 0.0427 99 0.7391
7 England 0.0421 105 0.7612
8 India 0.0384 94 0.7217
9 Canada 0.0367 92 0.7116
10 Sweden 0.0335 89 0.7018

Partial results of the research autonomy in national research collaboration (ranking by China's collaboration strength)

China USA Singapore Japan Australia ... Algeria
China ↙10.36%↑−9.66% ↙10.66%↑ −9.05% ↙11.76%↑ −5.10% ↙9.53%↑ −10.84% ↙6.67%↑0
USA ↙20.02%↑9.66% ↙12.97%↑0.09% ↙12.92%↑ −1.58% ↙14.18%↑0.91% ↙12.38%↑1.90%
Singapore ↙19.71%↑9.05% ↙12.88%↑ −0.09% ↙15.87%↑5.333% ↙15.22%↑4.03% ↙0.00%↑0
Japan ↙16.86%↑5.10% ↙14.51%↑1.58% ↙10.54%↑ −5.33% ↙15.79%↑5.53% ↙33.33%↑33.33%
Australia ↙20.37%↑10.84% ↙13.28%↑ −0.91% ↙11.19%↑ −4.03% ↙10.26%↑ −5.53% ↙0.00%↑ −33.33%
... ... ...
Algeria ↙6.67%↑0 ↙10.48%↑ −1.90% ↙0.00%↑0 ↙0.00%↑ −33.33% ↙33.33%↑33.33% ...

Top 5 collaboration countries with the highest collaboration strength in quantum technology.

No. Collaboration country (Number of papers) Collaboration strengtha Collaboration papers
1 Sri Lanka (64); Cyprus (109) 0.51 43
2 Sri Lanka (64); Georgia (139) 0.46 43
3 Estonia (189); Sri Lanka (64) 0.39 43
4 Cyprus (109); Georgia (139) 0.38 47
5 Egypt (1,386); Saudi Arabia (1,567) 0.36 528
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