According to Institute for Scientific Information's Essential Scientific Indicator, China has 253,566 theses included in the ESI from 1993 to 2003, ranking the 9th in the world. The theses are cited 735,288 times, 2.9 times per thesis, ranking the 18th and 994 theses are of the world class, ranking 17th in the world.

The US is the No.1 in the world with 2,799,593 theses included in ESI. The US, the UK, Japan, Germany and France are leading countries in scientific research, revealed Xiao Xiantao, chief writer of China Academy of Science's report on "International scientific development trend and Chinese science's influence".

The output of patent literature, an indicator of capability of technical innovation, is not satisfactory though China has made notable progress in the quantity of thesis. China is still far behind the major developed countries in terms of scientific innovation capability, the report shows.