BEIJING, Sept. 27 (Xinhua) -- China ranked second in terms of the number of its theses published in the most recognized scientific magazines and journals in 2012, a government think tank revealed on Friday.
A total of 4,020 scientific theses were carried by the "most influential" world-class magazines and journals last year, according to China's Institute of Scientific and Technical Information under the Ministry of Science and Technology.
Chinese scientists in 2012 published 187 theses on the most prestigious magazines of Nature, Science and Cells, moving up a spot from 2011 to rank ninth, the institute said.
In the past decade, more than 1.14 million scientific theses have come from Chinese scientific and technical personnel, the second-highest number worldwide.
The theses' overall quality has also risen, according to the institute. Those published in the past decade have been cited a total of about 7.1 million times, ranking fifth in the world.
More than 9,524 scientific theses qualify as "highly cited theses," or those among the top 1 percent in terms of citations, climbing one place to rank fourth.
However, Chinese theses are cited an average of 6.92 times, much lower than the world average of 10.69 times. Editor: An [More] Related News • Chinese scientists publish new findings on deadly H7N9 • Chinese scientists asked to improve toilet • Tooth generated from stem cells: Chinese scientists • Chinese scientists reveal H7N9 clinical findings • Chinese scientists unveil sperm inheritance findings