Executive summary

China's expansion in gold open access (OA) publishing is reshaping global knowledge exchange. The growth of China's OA output goes hand in hand with its continued R&D investment and the overall expansion of its scientific research. This research has become increasingly visible and influential, particularly across the Global South where open access plays a critical role in enabling participation in global science.

Aligned with the rapid expansion of China's overall research output, the country now publishes almost twice as many gold OA articles as it did five years ago, and this growth has been accompanied by rising international engagement. A substantial share of citations to China's OA research now comes from outside China, with the Global South emerging as a major contributor. This reflects both the relevance of China's research to shared development challenges and the value of removing access barriers.

The evidence in this white paper shows a consistent OA advantage. Chinese OA articles—especially those published in Springer Nature's hybrid journals—receive more citations and downloads in the Global South than comparable non-OA articles. Leading institutions and key disciplines further amplify this impact, and China's collaboration with the Global South is expanding and delivering clear mutual benefit.

Key findings

• There has been a 55% increase in the number of citations received by China's gold OA articles in the subsequent two years following publication between 2020 and 2022.

• Gold OA delivers a clear impact advantage especially when published in Springer Nature hybrid journals. OA articles receive almost twice as many citations from the Global South, with 5.2 Global South citations per article, compared to 2.7 for non-OA articles, and more than four times the downloads, demonstrating the role of OA in widening global access.

• Global visibility is increasing, with almost 40% of citations to China's 2022 OA articles coming from outside China.

• China's gold OA output delivers substantial benefits to the Global South, generating 742,000 citations from Global South countries to China's 2022 OA articles—19% of global citations—and providing broader access to research.

• Gold OA amplifies China's priority research disciplines, with the subject areas where China publishes the most—such as Biomedical Sciences, Engineering, Biological Sciences, and Chemical Sciences—also generating the highest levels of Global South citation impact.

• China's gold OA growth seems to be strengthening domestic journals, with OA articles in Springer Nature's China-based partner journals achieving as high as 5.5 Global South citations per article—significantly higher than the 1.0 citation rate for non-OA articles—demonstrating how OA enhances the visibility and competitiveness of China's own journal ecosystem.

• China's leading institutions drive high impact, with top universities outperforming the market average in Global South citations.

• Collaboration with the Global South is strengthening, with co-authored OA articles growing steadily and achieving significantly higher citation and attention metrics.