Concerns in China over research culture and management

A survey of researchers in China’s most prestigious universities has found concerns over short-term thinking in policymaking, with only one in five respondents saying they are satisfied with the country’s research culture.

Xueying Han and Richard Appelbaum from the University of California at Santa Barbara in the United States emailed their survey to more than 18,000 Chinese researchers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics at the 25 top institutions in China, receiving 731 responses.

An analysis of respondents’ free-text replies found that the most commonly cited challenge facing China’s research environment was short-term thinking, which was indicated in 37 per cent of replies.