---
title: "Who cites South Africa-funded research"
description: "Since 2023, papers in the tracked journals cited the 955 papers funded from South Africa 5,975 times (counting each citing country), #25 of 129 funding countries. 2% of the links come from papers with authors in South Africa; abroad, the largest users are China (2,773), the United States (737) and the United Kingdom (576)."
url: https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/south-africa
markdown_url: https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/south-africa.md
license: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)
share_text: "Since 2023, papers in the tracked journals cited the 955 papers funded from South Africa 5,975 times (counting each citing country), #25 of 129 funding countries. 2% of the links come from papers with authors in South… (as of 2026-10-31)"
data_url: https://scholar4ai.com/data/rankings.json
updated: 2026-10-31T17:45:59+09:00
window: 2026-10-02 to 2026-10-31
source: OpenAlex (CC0)
---

# Who uses research funded from South Africa

Where the papers funded from South Africa are cited inside the 400 tracked journals: by country, by institution and by funder, and whose research the papers from South Africa cite. A citation link is one paper citing another, both in the tracked journals (from OpenAlex references). The source is the country of the cited paper's funders (OpenAlex funders and their countries); the users are the countries and institutions of the citing paper's authors. A link counts once for each funding country of the cited paper and each country (or institution) of the citing paper, so the rows overlap. Papers without funding information, about half of them, have no source.

All funding countries: https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain.md

## Key findings

- Since 2023, papers in the tracked journals cited the 955 papers funded from South Africa 5,975 times (counting each citing country), #25 of 129 funding countries.
- 2% of the links come from papers with authors in South Africa; abroad, the largest users are China (2,773), the United States (737) and the United Kingdom (576).
- The institutions citing this research most are Hong Kong Polytechnic University (113), Nankai University (113) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (108).
- The South Africa funders behind the most-cited links are National Research Foundation (5,146), University of Johannesburg (222) and University of Pretoria (144).
- In turn, papers with authors in South Africa draw most on research funded from China (1,444), the United States (751) and the United Kingdom (606).

## Citing countries

*Countries whose papers cite South Africa-funded research, since 2023*

| # | Citing country | Links | Share |
|---:|---|---:|---:|
| 1 | China | 2,773 | 46% |
| 2 | United States | 737 | 12% |
| 3 | United Kingdom | 576 | 10% |
| 4 | South Korea | 506 | 8% |
| 5 | Australia | 382 | 6% |
| 6 | India | 284 | 5% |
| 7 | Germany | 257 | 4% |
| 8 | Hong Kong | 254 | 4% |
| 9 | Italy | 241 | 4% |
| 10 | France | 231 | 4% |
| 11 | Spain | 200 | 3% |
| 12 | Canada | 184 | 3% |
| 13 | Singapore | 181 | 3% |
| 14 | South Africa | 144 | 2% |
| 15 | Turkey | 135 | 2% |
| 16 | Netherlands | 126 | 2% |
| 17 | Japan | 123 | 2% |
| 18 | Vietnam | 108 | 2% |
| 19 | Saudi Arabia | 101 | 2% |
| 20 | Pakistan | 89 | 1% |
| 21 | Tunisia | 89 | 1% |
| 22 | United Arab Emirates | 86 | 1% |
| 23 | Malaysia | 84 | 1% |
| 24 | Taiwan | 83 | 1% |
| 25 | Iran | 82 | 1% |
| 26 | Sweden | 76 | 1% |
| 27 | Oman | 75 | 1% |
| 28 | Portugal | 74 | 1% |
| 29 | Lebanon | 72 | 1% |
| 30 | Finland | 67 | 1% |

## Citing institutions

*Institutions whose papers cite South Africa-funded research most, since 2023*

| # | Institution | Country | Links |
|---:|---|---|---:|
| 1 | [Hong Kong Polytechnic University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/hong-kong-polytechnic-university.md) | Hong Kong | 113 |
| 2 | [Nankai University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/nankai-university.md) | China | 113 |
| 3 | [Chinese Academy of Sciences](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/chinese-academy-of-sciences.md) | China | 108 |
| 4 | South China University of Technology | China | 103 |
| 5 | Nanyang Technological University | Singapore | 88 |
| 6 | Pusan National University | South Korea | 80 |
| 7 | [University of Electronic Science and Technology of China](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/university-of-electronic-science-and-technology-of-china.md) | China | 76 |
| 8 | [Zhejiang University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/zhejiang-university.md) | China | 76 |
| 9 | Hanyang University | South Korea | 73 |
| 10 | [Tsinghua University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/tsinghua-university.md) | China | 70 |
| 11 | [Southeast University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/southeast-university.md) | China | 69 |
| 12 | [Peking University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/peking-university.md) | China | 68 |
| 13 | Shenzhen University | China | 68 |
| 14 | [Wuhan University](https://scholar4ai.com/institutions/wuhan-university.md) | China | 67 |
| 15 | Sultan Qaboos University | Oman | 65 |

## Funders

*South Africa funders whose papers are cited most, since 2023*

| # | Funder | Links |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | National Research Foundation | 5,146 |
| 2 | University of Johannesburg | 222 |
| 3 | University of Pretoria | 144 |
| 4 | Universiteit Stellenbosch | 130 |
| 5 | University of Cape Town | 124 |
| 6 | Inyuvesi Yakwazulu-Natali | 28 |
| 7 | University of South Africa | 28 |
| 8 | Bradlow Foundation | 26 |
| 9 | North-West University | 26 |
| 10 | Central University of Technology | 23 |
| 11 | Cape Peninsula University of Technology | 22 |
| 12 | Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, South Africa | 21 |
| 13 | South African Medical Research Council | 21 |
| 14 | Ernest Oppenheimer Memorial Trust | 20 |
| 15 | National Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences | 18 |

## What papers from South Africa cite

*Research funded elsewhere that papers from South Africa cite, since 2023*

| # | Funding country | Links |
|---:|---|---:|
| 1 | [China](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/china.md) | 1,444 |
| 2 | [United States](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/united-states.md) | 751 |
| 3 | [United Kingdom](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/united-kingdom.md) | 606 |
| 4 | [Spain](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/spain.md) | 306 |
| 5 | [Germany](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/germany.md) | 295 |
| 6 | [Australia](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/australia.md) | 231 |
| 7 | [Italy](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/italy.md) | 219 |
| 8 | [South Korea](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/south-korea.md) | 205 |
| 9 | [Canada](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/canada.md) | 187 |
| 10 | [Netherlands](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/netherlands.md) | 182 |
| 11 | [Sweden](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/sweden.md) | 160 |
| 12 | [Japan](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/japan.md) | 141 |
| 13 | [France](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/france.md) | 127 |
| 14 | [Finland](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/finland.md) | 123 |
| 15 | [Portugal](https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/portugal.md) | 112 |

## Cite this page

Scholar4AI. (2026). Who uses research funded from South Africa. Journal Research Rankings. Retrieved October 31, 2026, from https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/south-africa

```bibtex
@misc{scholar4ai-supply-chain-south-africa,
  author = {{Scholar4AI}},
  title = {Who uses research funded from South Africa},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {\url{https://scholar4ai.com/supply-chain/south-africa}},
  urldate = {2026-10-31},
  note = {Journal Research Rankings; data from OpenAlex (CC0); licensed CC BY-NC 4.0}
}
```

License: CC BY-NC 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).