China’s ascendance in transport research

Figures & data

Figure 1. China’s GDP and percentage of GDP devoted to R&D 1996–2015.

Figure 2. Trends of the number of publications and the market shares of China and the USA from 1996 to 2015.

Table 1. Geographical distribution of publications from 1996 to 2015.

Country/region	Number of publications	Per cent
USA	22,300	39.6
Peoples R China	4863	8.6
England	4714	8.4
Canada	3659	6.5
South Korea	2697	4.8
Australia	2625	4.7
Netherlands	1927	3.4
Taiwan	1742	3.1
Italy	1632	2.9
Germany	1614	2.9

Note: The country/region is presented in exact wording extracted from WoS; the ranking of UK could be the second in the list, if England only represents part of UK in WoS.

Table 2. Citation records 2011–2015.

	China	USA
Number of publications in the 54 selected transport journals	3296	8908
Number of citations	15,876	35,378
Number of citations per publication (total impact)	4.8	4.0
Percentage of citations from the same country	51	40
Number of citations from outside of the country per publication (exogenous impact)	2.3	2.4
Number of citations from the same country per publication (endogenous impact)	2.5	1.6

Table 3. Top 10 funding sources acknowledged in publications 2011–2015.

Funding source	Number of publications	Per cent
National Natural Science Foundation of China	1138	4.5
National Science Foundation	421	1.7
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities	232	0.9
FHWA	182	0.7
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada	162	0.6
National Basic Research Program of China	145	0.6
National Science Foundation of China	120	0.5
European Commission	100	0.4
US National Science Foundation	97	0.4
European Union	96	0.4

Note: Italic: Funding sources in China.

Figure 3. The SE and SSE market share trends of China and the USA from 1996 to 2015.

Table 4. SE and SSE citation records from 2011 to 2015.

	SE (23 selected journals in Note 4)		SSE (22 selected journals in Note 5)
	China	USA	China	USA
Number of publications in the selected transport journals	2319	5763	506	2008
Number of citations	9823	17,105	2266	8681
Number of citations per publication (total impact)	4.2	3.0	4.5	4.3
Per cent of citations from the same country	55	40	47	45
Number of citations from outside of the country per publication (exogenous impact)	1.9	1.8	2.4	2.4
Number of citations from the same country per publication (endogenous impact)	2.3	1.2	2.1	2.0

Table 5. Top 10 funding sources acknowledged in SE and SSE publications from 2011 to 2015.

SE			SSE
Funding source	No.	%	Funding source	No.	%
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)	922	6.3	National Natural Science Foundation of China (NFSC)	50	0.7
National Science Foundation	308	2.1	Insurance Institute for Highway Safety	32	0.4
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (FRFCU)	193	1.3	Australian Research Council	21	0.3
FHWA	181	1.2	European Commission	19	0.3
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada	149	1.0	National Highway Traffic Safety Administration	17	0.2
National Science Foundation of China (NSFC)	107	0.7	Toyota Motor Corporation	14	0.2
National Basic Research Program of China (NBRPC)	106	0.7	Bloomberg Philanthropies	13	0.2
U S National Science Foundation	82	0.6	University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies	11	0.1
National Research Foundation of Korea	81	0.6	NHTSA	10	0.1
European Union	80	0.5	National Science Foundation (NSF) Center for Child Injury Prevention Studies at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia	10	0.1

Note: Italic: Funding source in China.