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Who stands on the shoulders of Chinese (Scientific) Giants? Evidence from chemistry

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  • Qiu, Shumin
  • Steinwender, Claudia
  • Azoulay, Pierre

Abstract

China’s rise in science has the potential to push forward the knowledge frontier, but mere production of knowledge does not guarantee that others are able to build on it. We ask whether chemistry research originating from China offers broad shoulders for follow-on scientists to stand on. We show that even after carefully controlling for the quality of Chinese research, Chinese scientists’ articles receive on average 28% fewer citations from US researchers, relative to scientists from other countries. Only Chinese researchers with unusually deep networks in the US can overcome, at least in part, the citation discount.

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  • Qiu, Shumin & Steinwender, Claudia & Azoulay, Pierre, 2025. "Who stands on the shoulders of Chinese (Scientific) Giants? Evidence from chemistry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(1).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:1:s0048733324001963
    DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2024.105147
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    Cited by:

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    2. Hoekman, Jarno & Rake, Bastian, 2024. "Geography of authorship: How geography shapes authorship attribution in big team science," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 53(2).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Science of science; Research dissemination; Citation patterns; Research quality; China; Networks;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I23 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Higher Education; Research Institutions
    • O30 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - General
    • O53 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economywide Country Studies - - - Asia including Middle East

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