On January 17, 2019, Elsevier, one of the world's largest scholarly journal publishers, released its list of the 2018 Most Cited Chinese Researchers, in which Professor Yan Xuetong had made the list once again for his exceptional performance in the field of Social Science. Not only this is Professor Yan’s fifth consecutive year to make the list since 2014, he is the only Political Science scholar on the list as well. This year’s recipient consists of a total of 1,899 scholars coming from 229 universities, researching units and firms.

The research data of 2018 Most Cited Chinese Researchers are taken from Scopus, which is Elsevier’s abstract and citation database. Top five of Professor Yan’s most frequently cited literatures within the Scopus database wereAncient Chinese Thought, Modern Chinese Power, “From Keeping a Low Profile to Striving to Achievement”, “The Rise of China and its Power Status”, “The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes”, and “The Instability of China-US Relations”.

Scopus is the world’s largest database of abstracts and citation, archived more than 22,000 peer-reviewed journals and 7 million academic conference papers from over 5,000 publishers which cover Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, Natural Sciences, Technology and Science, Medical Science and more.The 2018 Most Cited Chinese Researchers List uses the methods and standards developed by ShanghaiRanking Consultancy Co., Ltd. to coherently analyze the impact of Chinese researchers on the world based on objective citation data.