China has continued to lead the world in the number of science and technology papers published in top journals across disciplines, as well as in international high-level journals and their citation counts, demonstrating the country's growing scientific productivity and prestige, an annual report published on Thursday said.

The report, titled "Statistical Data of Chinese Science and Technology Papers", indicated that China published more than 15,000 papers in the 163 most impactful journals across 178 disciplines last year. This accounted for 35.2 percent of the global total, maintaining China's position as the world leader, as it did in 2023.

China also held its top position in both the number and citation counts of papers published in 377 top international scientific journals last year, with 154,900 papers, accounting for around 40 percent of the total and receiving more than 1 million citations, the report said.

The Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China, which is affiliated with the Ministry of Science and Technology, publishes the report annually, aiming to monitor research trends, assess China's research capabilities, and support the decision-making of scientific researchers amid the evolving landscape of open science and global technological competition.

Over the past decade, China has led the world in citation counts across nine scientific fields — materials science, engineering and technology, chemistry, environmental and ecological sciences, mathematics, computer science, agricultural sciences, pharmacology and toxicology, and physics — with the last two fields being added to the list this year. Additionally, the average citation count of Chinese international papers, at 17.24, has surpassed the global average for the second consecutive year.

Zhang Mingming, a researcher at the Institute of Modern Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, highlighted China's emphasis on, and achievements in, fundamental research — attributing the success to advanced research facilities, efficient experimental methods, and the concerted efforts of researchers.

"Our institute has synthesized more than 40 new nuclides, enabling China to become the country with the highest number of newly discovered nuclides in the neutron-deficient light actinide region in recent years, laying a solid experiential foundation for research on the synthesis of new elements," Zhang said, adding that most of their papers have been published in top international journals and received high citation counts.

As of August, China has published 2,342 hot papers — studies published in the past two years that have been widely cited — representing a year-on-year increase of 4.6 percent and accounting for more than half of the global total. The United States ranked second with 1,511 hot papers, the report said.