was launched in 2001–2002, and approved 964 units titled NK discipline. The third
and also the most recent one, was in 2006, and approved 286 units titledfirst-level
NK discipline, and 677 units titled second-level NK discipline, and also 217 titled
prospective NK discipline. In our dataset, the 2006s indicator is based on data of the
second round, and from 2007 on, the indicator is based on data of the third round.Introduction to the Indicators of Research Outputs
We construct research output indicators from three dimensions, academic books,
academic articles, and intellectual properties.(1) Academic Books
Published academic books are a major output of research activities in univer-
sities, and also a major form of basic research outcomes. Academic books can be
divided into several kinds, like authored books, edited books, translated books,
textbooks, etc. Authored books (or Monographs) are the outcomes of relative
long-term and highly innovative research in a particular area, which reflects the
academic devotion and research capacity of one researcher. Therefore, we choose
the number of scientific and technological monographs to be the indicator of aca-
demic books for NEAM disciplines. However, it’s regretful that there is no detailed
data of academic books in HSS disciplines, we just use the number of academic
books, instead of monographs, for HSS disciplines.(2) Academic Articles
Publishing on academic journals is another important research product in uni-
versities, and is also an indicator with international comparability. The quality of an
academic article is often determined by which journal it will be published on.
Currently, there are several authorities of citation index worldwide, like Science
Citation Index (SCI), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Engineering Index (EI),
Index to Scientific & Technical Proceedings (ISTP). Inside China, there are also
some similar authorities of citation index like Chinese Science Citation Database
(CSCD), and Chinese Social Science Citation Index (CSSCI). In this chapter, we
choose the numbers of ESI articles, SCI articles, EI articles and CSCD articles as
the NEAM indicator of academic articles, and numbers of SSCI articles (not review,
meeting abstract, editorial material) and CSSCI as the HSS indicators of academic
articles.(3) Intellectual Properties (IPs)
If academic books and articles are treated as the representative outputs of basic
research, then IPs created by universities are much closer to the applications of
research knowledge, or the marketization of research outcomes, which is also the
research outcomes closest to market economy.4.1 Indicator System Construction and Data Sources 121