DIALOGUE 3

Xinhua: How is Chinese scientific groups' papers publication doing, in terms of originality, forwardness and growing rate?

According to data provided by Natasha D. Pinol, senior communications officer of science, almost 70 published original research papers have listed authors from China in 2010. But to 2013, the number has rocketed to 104.

Dr. Nick Campbell, executive editor of Nature, also said increasing research papers from China have been published in his journals in recent years.

"From 2008 to 2012 we saw the contribution from Chinese authors to papers in Nature rapidly increase to 2.5 percent in 2012 compared to 1.5 percent in 2008," he said. "Over the same period China' share of papers in all Nature journals were more than doubled, from 1.5 percent to 4.2 percent."

The editor told Xinhua that the Chinese Academy of Sciences has replaced the University of Tokyo in January 2013 as the largest institutional contributor to Nature in the Asia-Pacific.

"All indications at this stage are that this pattern of growth has continued," said Campbell. "Our criteria for selection focus on original findings of outstanding significance that are of interest to an interdisciplinary readership... in broad terms, an improvement in the number of Chinese researchers that are meeting these exacting standards in their papers."

DIALOGUE 4

Xinhua: China has made considerate investment in scientific R&D. Can you tell us how is China's research output compared with that of the West? What should be underlined in China's reform of its scientific and research system in your opinion?

"Government support for science clearly helps to speed scientific advancement," said Pinol. "Adequate federal support for research and development is essential to innovation. China's leaders clearly recognize the connection between increased government support for science and the discoveries that drive economic prosperity."

As for Campbell, he said research-output efficiency is not a trivial thing to measure.

"We would never suggest that you should use publications in Nature journals," he said. "Nonetheless we can at least look at how countries do relative to their total number of researchers. These figures show that China's contribution to these journals is lower than smaller Asia-Pacific countries such as Australia and Singapore, and the largest global contributors to Nature journals, the USA and UK."

However, the executive editor argued that there is no perfect way of organizing a research funding system.

"Many nations are struggling to strike an appropriate balance bet," he said. "Like all nations, China needs to continue to focus on improvements that reward high quality research outcomes and help leverage that research to ultimately make a substantive positive impact on broader society."