Distribution of research fields within three units including CAS, CGS and other geo-sciences colleges/universities based on literature metrology.

This paper has carried out a quantitative evaluation on research fields by using literature metrology so as to make clear the current situation of geo-science research in China. Based on Chinese Geological Literature Database, we have made a statistic of all papers published during 2003 to 2007 by three units including Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Chinese Geological Survey (CGS) and all geo-sciences colleges/schools, and these papers were classified by subjects into “basic geology”, “mineral resources”, “environmental geology” and “geological technology” as well as some hot-spots throughout the domain. Primary results indicate that: (1) CAS is playing a leading role in China in term of Quaternary, Paleontology and other fundamental geological research field; (2) CAS has earned a favorable reputation in term of “metallic mineral resources”, “metamorphic rocks” and “exploration engineering”; and (3) other geo-science colleges/universities have the most papers published with balanced development in all fields, characterized by their sedimentary rocks, engineering geology and mathematical geology. Overall China has already been a large country of geo-sciences,but has been lagged behind international level in some frontier fields such as planetary geology, polar geology, global change, etc.