China’s research collaboration with these three countries spiked in 2024 | News

Collaborative articles with South Korea, Australia and India are growing fast.

China’s collaborative research output with India, South Korea and Australia increased significantly between 2023 and 2024 — far more than it did with other leading science nations.

New country collaboration data can be viewed on the Nature Index website, which tracks authorship in high-quality natural- and health-sciences journals. In the historical country/territory collaboration section, users can select any two countries or territories to view collaboration data on them over the past 10 years.

Bilateral collaboration score (BCS) measures how much two countries work together by adding up their shared contributions to research papers. A score of 1 means the countries together account for one full paper in the Index journals, whether from a single study or combined smaller contributions across several papers.

The United States remains by far China’s most productive partner in high-quality research; the two countries’ BCS in 2024 was 4,827. China’s BCS with Germany — its second-ranked collaborator — was 1,407, and the United Kingdom, ranked third, was 1,646.

Collaborative output for China and the United States bounced back in 2024 after waning through the COVID-19 pandemic years. But it only jumped by 22.73% (from 3,933 in 2023 to 4,827 in 2024), which is a much smaller increase than with several other countries in that period.

It’s worth noting, however, that the index saw its biggest ever rise in article volume in 2024, so it is not unexpected that any collaboration would have risen. Health sciences journals were added to the index in 2022, which could also account for some increases in BCS at that time.

China’s BCS with Australia in 2024 was 1,238, up from 773 in 2023 — a jump of 60.16%. This is a significant increase on previous years. Between 2015 and 2023, each year’s BCS increased by less than 100 points, excluding 2017 to 2018, when it jumped by 109 points.

Looking at China’s collaboration with India over time, after a small drop in BCS from 2017 to 2018, it increased by intervals of 25 points or less each year. That is until 2024, when the countries’ BCS almost doubled compared with 2023, jumping from 113 to 203 — an increase of 79.65%.

China’s collaboration with South Korea recorded an even steeper spike in 2024. From 2015 to 2023, we see the BCS increase by intervals of 36 or less. Then from 2023 to 2024, it jumps by 81.13%, from 318 to 576.

Compare these jumps to other countries in the index, such as Switzerland, whose BCS with China increased by 23% from 2023 to 2024, and the United Kingdom’s, by 50%.

US collaborative output

Looking at the United States’ collaborations over time, its BCS with Australia, France, the United Kingdom and Germany has remained fairly stable since 2018.

Its collaborative output with Canada, by comparison, has steadily increased over the years. US-Canada BCS jumped from 1,216 in 2021 to 1,576 in 2022, and reached 1,709 in 2024.

US collaboration with South Korea also jumped, from 749 in 2023 to 930 in 2024. The 2024 BCS is by far the pair’s largest in the 10-year period.

Users can explore country collaborations in more detail on the Nature Index website.