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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13 March 2023     Paper Number CEPDP1904

Download PDF - Who stands on the shoulders of Chinese (scientific) giants? Evidence from chemistry

This CEP discussion paper is published under the centre's Growth programme.