International academic impact of Chinese tourism research: A review based on the analysis of SSCI tourism articles from 2001 to 2012

Between 2001 and 2011 Chinese authors published over 838,000 articles in SSCI rated journals, second only to authors in the United States. However Chinese tourism academics lagged behind their counterparts in obtaining such publications, with only 157 papers in the Thomson Reuters SSCI listing for tourism and hospitality. However in recent years the numbers of Chinese authored publications have significantly increased. The paper argues that access to SSCI ranked publications is important for Chinese tourism academics because (a) it helps inform the world of developments in Chinese tourism, (b) it is a recognition of the standards of Chinese research and a means of improving Chinese research and (c) it provides a motive for international collaboration between Chinese researchers and their counterparts.