Domestically Interacted Scientists Drive Nanocarbon Applied Research in China

Scientific research generally progresses from basic to applied. Quantitatively identifying the stages of progression helps policymakers build consensus on funding in basic research by discovering the trend of research fields with high potential for practical use. Previously, quantitative evaluation of progression revealed that the nanocarbon applied research is flourishing especially in China post-2010. However, factors that can explain this progression still need to be determined. Here we elucidate the characteristics of the Chinese researchers involved in applied research. Using the large-scale article data, we calculated the share of nationalities of organizations to which scientist groups belonged pre- and post-2010 for Chinese, U.S., and Japanese scientists. It is found that Chinese applied scientists have been conducting applied research domestically since pre-2010. The paper productivity, number of citations, and quantitative scores of “appliedness” for each scientist are also compared by country, suggesting that Chinese applied scientists are less active in academic achievement. As factors behind China’s rapid progress in applied research, the presence of scientists who have been working in a specific applied field for a long time and their strong interest in industry rather than academic achievement are suggested. These peculiarities of China’s research environment extracted from large-scale data can help policymakers design the environments to progress in specific science and technology fields.