China remains the top source of scientific "hot papers," contributing 48.4 percent of the global total, according to a think tank report released on Friday.

Hot papers are scientific studies published within two years of their classification that have received a significant number of citations over the most recent two months and have been cited in the top 0.1 percent of their respective disciplines.

China had published 2,071 hot papers as of July 2024, with the United States coming in second with 1,625, according to the report released by the Ministry of Science and Technology's Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China.

China ranked second in the number of highly cited papers, which are studies whose citations over the past decade rank in the top 1 percent of their respective fields.

According to the report, China had 65,700 highly cited papers as of July this year, accounting for 33.8 percent of the global total and securing its second-place rank. The United States had produced 76,500 highly cited papers, or 39.3 percent of the global total and ranking first.

The report also highlighted that in 2023, China published a total of 395 papers in the three most widely recognized scientific journals – Cell, Nature and Science – which led to its global ranking rise from fourth place in 2022 to second place last year.

The number of China's scientific research papers has ranked first for many years, and the country will continue striving to fill the void in the production of top-quality papers, the report said.