Structural similarities between science growth dynamics in China and in western countries

To compare science growth of different countries is both, of theoretical and of pragmatic interest. Using methods for the analysis of complex growth processes introduced by H. E. Stanley and others, we exhibit quantitative features of Chinese science growth from 1986 to 1999 and compare them with corresponding features of western countries. Patterns of growth dynamics of Chinese universities publication output do not differ significantly from those found in the case of western countries. The same is valid for Chinese journals when compared to international journals. In nearly all cases the size distribution of output over universities or journals is near to a lognormal one, the growth rate distribution is Laplace-like, and the standard deviations of the corresponding conditional distributions with regard to size decay according to a power law. This means that regarding some structural-dynamical properties China's recent science system cannot be distinguished from a western one - despite different prehistory and different political and economic environment.