China announced top five universities in scientific research for the year of 1998 in Beijing October 26.They are Nanjing University, Beijing University, Qinghua University, Chinese University of Science and Technology ,Fudan University.

An official with the Ministry of Science and Technology said at a press conference in Beijing that scientists and teachers from Nanjing University published a total of 552 research papers on international journals last year, according to the US-based Science Citation Index.

Zhu Wei, head of the Institute of Scientific and Technological Information, said that based on the influential US Scientific Citation Index, Engineering Index and Index to Science and Technology Proceedings, a paper on physics contributed by Peng Jianhua from Changchun-based Northeast China Teachers' University, was cited for 32 times by international journals last year.

Song Licheng, a teacher from Tianjin-based Nankai University published 23 research papers on international journals and they were cited for 53 times last year.

Statistics indicated that China still ranked the ninth among the countries in term of scientific papers published in international journals or at world conferences in 1998. Chinese scientists published a total of over 35,000 scientific research papers last year.

However, Zhu Wei noted, only three inland universities ranked among the world's top 300 universities and colleges in terms of research papers published. (Xinhua)