Mapping research spotlights for different regions in China

To reveal China’s regional disparity both in research output and preferential research areas is the main purpose of this study. For this study, we investigated the research outputs of all 31 regions (27 provinces and 4 municipalities) in mainland China. The investigated dataset was sourced from CNKI, one of China’s largest domestic academic databases. To measure research preferences between regions, we used the function of cosine distance rather than Euclidean distance. Clustering method was employed to classify the regions according to their similarity/disparity. In the end, six clusters were generated. Each cluster is different in research preferences. For example, Inner Mongolia in Cluster D is featured with the emphasis on animal handcraft; while Hubei province in Cluster A is characterized by a wide range of research areas.