Is there a clubbing effect underlying Chinese research citation Increases?

There is increasing evidence that citations to C hinese research publications are rising sharply. A series of reasons have been highlighted in previous studies. This research explores another possibility—whether there is a “clubbing” effect in C hina's surge in research citations, in which a higher rate of internal citing takes place among influential C hinese researchers. Focusing on the most highly cited research articles in nanotechnology, we find that a larger proportion of C hinese nanotechnology research citations are localized within individual, institutional, and national networks within C hina. Both descriptive and statistical tests suggest that highly cited C hinese papers are more likely than similar U.S. papers to receive internal and localized citations. Tentative explanations and policy implications are discussed.