BEIJING -- China's scientific researchers have reached a new milestone, with their papers in international journals receiving citations above the global average, according to a think tank report released on Friday.

Over the past decade, Chinese researchers' international papers have been cited an average of 16.20 times per paper, surpassing the global average of 15.76 for the first time, according to the report released by the Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China under the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Chinese research papers in the fields of materials science, engineering technology, chemistry, environment and ecology, computer science, agricultural science and mathematics received the highest number of citations worldwide in the last decade.

The report highlighted that in 2023, over 40 percent of citations to Chinese papers in their year of publication came from countries and regions outside China. India had the highest number and frequency of citations for Chinese papers, followed by the United States and the Republic of Korea.

China also saw high citation rates in fields such as materials science, chemistry, physics and environmental science, the report noted.