China overtakes US in contributions to nature and science journals

China has overtaken the US to become the biggest contributor to nature-science journals, in a sign of the country's growing influence in the world of academic research. The Nature Index, which tracks data on author affiliations in 82 high quality journals, found that authors affiliated with Chinese institutions are more prolific than their US counterparts in physical sciences, chemistry, Earth and environmental sciences. The only category in which the US is still in the lead is life sciences. The finding comes from a snapshot of the Nature Index's data taken in April. The full data for 2022 will be released…