China's Biomedical Scientific Leadership Flows and the Role of Proximity.

In this paper, we propose the concept of scientific leadership, and examine the effect and evolution of various proximity dimensions (geographical, cognitive, institutional, social and economic) on scientific leadership flows. The data to capture scientific leadership consists of a set of multi-institution papers published between 2013 and 2017 in biomedical field. We filter 244 institutions that have positive scientific leadership every year. The gravity model (Tobit model) sheds light on the role and dynamic evolution of geographical, cognitive, institutional, social and economic proximity in shaping scientific leadership flows. Our findings can provide evidence and support for grant allocation policy to facilitate biomedical scientific research and collaborations.