An International Comparison of the Citation Impact of Chinese Journals with Priority Funding

We have investigated the citation impact of four pairs of journals in four subject categories including the category of multidisciplinary journals, journals in environmental sciences, applied mathematics, as well as metallurgy and metallurgical engineering. Each pair is composed of one Chinese journal and one leading international journal in the same subject category. Comparison is done between the selected Chinese and international journals in each pair. The four Chinese journals are selected because of priority funding by the Chinese CIU Plan in categories A and B. Compared with leading international journals in the same subject category, citation impacts of the four Chinese journals in their relevant environments are low, although they have been improving from 2004 to 2013. Leading international journals are more intensively and systematically cited than Chinese ones in the same subject category of the JCR. Regarding the CIU Plan, the level of funding seems not to follow exactly the citation impacts: Journals receiving larger amounts of funding do not necessarily perform better in citation impact, and journals receiving the same amount of subsidy may have different citation performances.