Skip to main content
Log in

Comparison and evaluation of Chinese research performance in the field of bioinformatics

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Bioinformatics is an emerging and rapidly evolving discipline. The bioinformatics literature is growing exponentially. This paper aims to provide an integrated bibliometric study of the knowledge base of Chinese research community, based on the bibliometric information in the field of bioinformatics from SCI-Expanded database during the period of 2000–2005. It is found that China is productive in bioinformatics as far as publication activity in international journals is concerned. For comparative purpose, the results are benchmarked against the findings from five other major nations in the field of bioinformatics: USA, UK, Germany, Japan and India. In terms of collaboration profile, the findings imply that the collaborative scope of China has gradually transcended boundaries of organizations, regions and nations as well. Finally, further analyses on the citation share and some surrogate scientometric indicators show that the publications of Chinese authors suffer from a lowest international visibility among the six countries. Strikingly, Japan has achieved most remarkable impact of publication when compared to research effort devoted to bioinformatics amongst the six countries. The policy implication of the findings lies in that Chinese scientific community needs much work on improving the research impact and pays more attention to strengthening the academic linkages between China and worldwide nations, particularly scientifically advanced countries.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ajiferuke, I., Burrell, Q., Tague, J. (1988), Collaborative coefficient: A single measure of the degree of collaboration in research, Scientometrics, 14: 421–433.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ball, P. (2005), Index aims for fair ranking of scientists, Nature, 436: 900.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bornmann, L., Daniel, H.-D. (2005), Does the h-index for ranking of scientists really work? Scientometrics, 65: 391–392.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Braun, T., Glänzel, W., Schubert, A. (2006), A Hirsch-type index for journals, Scientometrics, 69: 169–173.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Buela-casal, G., Perakakis, P., Taylor, T., Checa, P. (2006), Measuring internationality: Reflections and perspectives on academic journals, Scientomertics, 67(1): 45–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burrell, Q. L. (2005), Measuring similarity of concentration between different informetric distribution: Two new approaches, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(7): 704–714.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S., Cole, J. R. (1967), Scientific output and recognition, American Sociological Review, 32: 377–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, S., Cole, J. R. (1968), Visibility and the structural bases of awareness of scientific research., American Sociological Review, 33: 397–413.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Frame, J. D. (1977), Mainstream research in Latin America and Caribbean, Interciencia, 2: 143–148.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garg, K. C., Padhi, P. (2001), A study of collaboration in laser science and technology, Scientometrics, 50(2): 415–427.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garg, K. C., Padhi, P. (2002), Scientometrics of laser research in India during 1970–1994, Scientometrics, 55(2): 215–241.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garg, K. C. (2002), Scientometrics of laser research in India and China, Scientometrics, 55(1): 71–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W. (2000), Science in Scandinavia: A bibliometric approach, Scientometrics, 48: 121–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Glänzel, W., Schubert, A. (2001), Double effort = double impact? A critical view at international coauthorship in chemistry, Scientometrics, 50: 199–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, M. D. (1980), A critical reassessment of inferred relations between multiple authorship, scientific collaboration, the production of papers and their acceptance for publication, Scientometrics, 2(3): 193–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guan, J. C., Ma, N. (2004), A comparative study of research performance in computer science, Scientometrics, 61(3): 339–359.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Guan, J. C., He, Y. (2005), Comparison and evaluation of domestic and international outputs in information science & technology research of China, Scientometrics, 65(2): 215–244.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirsch, J. E. (2005), An index to quantify an individual’s scientific research output, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 102: 16569–16572.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, D. A. (2004) The scientific impact of nations, Nature, 430: 313–316.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kostoff, R. N. (2002), Citation analysis of research performer quality, Scientometrics, 53(1): 49–71.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, F. W. (1986), Vocabulary Control for Information Retrieval, 2nd ed. Arlington, VA.: Information Resources.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ma, N., Guan, J. C. (2005), An exploratory study on collaboration profiles of Chinese publications in Molecular Biology, Scientometrics, 65(3): 343–355.

    Article  MathSciNet  Google Scholar 

  • Moed, H. F. (2000), Bibliometric indicators reflect publication and management strategies, Scientometrics, 47: 323–346.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moed, H. F. (2002), Measuring China’s research performance using the Science Citation Index, Scientometrics, 53(3): 281–296.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Popov, S. B. (2005), A parameter to quantify dynamics of a researcher’s scientific activity. arXiv:physics/0508113.

  • Price, D. De. S. (1963), Little Science, Big Science. Columbia University Press, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Price, D. De. S. (1981), The analysis of scientometric metrics for policy implications, Scientometrics, 3: 47–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Patra, S. K., Mishra, S. (2006), Bibliometric study of bioinformatics literature, Scientometrics, 67(3): 477–489.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, A., Braun, T. (1986), Relative indicators and relational charts for comparative assessment of publication output and citation impact, Scientometrics, 9: 281–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Van Raan, A. F. J. (2006), Comparison of the Hirsch-index with standard bibliometric indicators and with peer judgment for 147 chemistry research groups, Scientometrics, 67(1): 491–502.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wormell, I. (1998), Informetric analysis of the international impact of scientific journals: how ‘international’ are the international journals? Journal of Documentation, 54: 584–605.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Westhead, D. R., Parish, J. H., Twyman, R. M. (2002), Instant Notes in Bioinformatics. BIOS Scientific Publishers Limited, UK.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zitt, M., Bassecoulard, E. (1999), Another view on internationalization of scientific communication: Evolutions at the journal level. In: C. A. Macias-Chapula (Ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh Conference of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics, Universidad de Colima, 558–570.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiancheng Guan.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Guan, J., Gao, X. Comparison and evaluation of Chinese research performance in the field of bioinformatics. Scientometrics 75, 357–379 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1871-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1871-0

Keywords

Navigation