Nanobiomedical science in China: a research field on the rise

Abstract

Medical and health care applications of nanotechnology have increasingly attracted research and innovation attention. Nano-biomedical science (NBMS) is a term we use to define this emerging domain. As China is one of the leading countries in nanotechnology, but lacks a long history as a biosciences leader, this paper explores the competitive positioning of China in the development of NBMS. Specifically, this paper profiles the research patterns of Chinese NBMS in comparison with the four other largest countries in NBMS, using bibliometric techniques. The results indicate that China is a leader in NBMS, leveraging its strengths in chemistry and physics in the broader nanotechnology domain. However, China's relative weakness in traditional biomedical disciplines, and its lack of presence in highly influential global journals, could prove to be limiting factors.

Keywords:

• nanotechnology
• nanobiotechnology
• bibliometric analysis
• China

Acknowledgements

This research was undertaken at Georgia Tech drawing on support from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through the Center for Nanotechnology in Society (Arizona State University; Award No. 0531194); and the Science of Science Policy Program – ‘Measuring and Tracking Research Knowledge Integration’ (Georgia Tech; Award No. 0830207). The findings and observations contained in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

Notes

http://www.most.gov.cn/cxfw/200806/t20080617_62500.htm.

Data source: http://www.nsfc.gov.cn/.

The Nano database updated as of 26 February 2010 is the latest version.

We normalised the data of 2009 by dividing by 0.8.

Concentration index = count of publications of NBMS in China/count of publications of global NBMS)/(count of publications of Chinese nano/count of publications of global nano).

The Fisher–Pry model predicts characteristics loosely analogous to those of biological system growth.

SIC (country) = percentage of the country of the world total in citations/percentage of the country of the world total in papers = number of citation / number of papers] (country) × [number of papers/number of citation] (world).

Integration is an index of interdisciplinarity, which measures the interaction among different disciplines based on the diversity of journals in the cited references of a paper. A score of 1 means that the paper is broadly integrative whereas a score near 0 means that the cited references focus on a single type of journal (Porter, Roessner, and Heberger 2008).

These top funding organisations are ranked by the records of publications which make a footnote of them.