LONDON - China is on track to be the second most influential country in science publishing, said a report published by the prestigious journal Nature on Wednesday.

The Nature Publishing Index 2011 China, a supplement to Nature, calculates that papers with authors from China represent 6.6 percent of all the papers published in Nature and its affiliated journals in 2011, up from 5.3 percent in 2010.

The index also presents a new analysis of ISI Web of Knowledge data, showing that China now publishes more than 10 percent of the world's most cited scientific research.

The report said that China has increased its share of the top 1 percent of highly cited scientific articles from 1.85 percent in 2001 to 11.3 percent in 2011, ranking fourth globally now, just after the United States, Germany and Britain.

"By 2014, China could surpass Germany and the United Kingdom who currently hold second and third places," said Felix Cheung, Editor of Nature China and the index.

Meanwhile, the United States has seen its share of highly influential research drop from 64.3 percent in 2001 to 50.7 percent in 2011, according to the index.

Inside China, the top five institutions in the index are: the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the University of Science and Technology of China (USTC), Peking University, Tsinghua University, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST).