A Systematic Overview of Operations Research/Management Science Research in Mainland China: Bibliometric Analysis of the Period 2001–2013

Scholars from Mainland China have published 8541 papers in 79 Operations Research and Management Science (OR/MS) journals available on the ISI Web of Science (WOS). Data from 2001 to 2013 constitute the basis of the bibliometric method used in this paper for statistical analysis of status of OR/MS research in Mainland China, from the perspectives of number of papers, quality of papers, most productive institutions, co-author analysis, citations analysis and research topic analysis, etc. The results show that although the number of OR/MS papers by Mainland China scholars grew exponentially during this period, the quality of papers needs to be further improved. Besides, the competition among the institutions in Mainland China is very fierce. Furthermore, the co-author analysis shows that the depth of cooperation has increased steadily and yet the breadth of cooperation has much room for development. Moreover, from the perspective of citations, only a small number of papers by Mainland China scholars have influenced the international OR/MS field. In addition, analysis of research topics shows that Mainland China scholars have been studying the OR/MS problems from a variety of perspectives. Additionally, we also visualize the relationship of the keywords to describe the status of development of the OR/MS discipline in Mainland China, and conclude that the connection nodes will have greater potential in the future.