Purpose： We want to contribute to the evaluation of Chinese research, focusing on contributions in top journals. Design/methodology/approach： Using a Mann-Whitney test we investigate if contributions in Nature, Science or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America （PNAS） by Chinese or American authors only, i.e. articles for which all authors have a Chinese or an American address, have a different citation potential. Findings： There is no reason to state that Chinese and American contributions in these top journals have a different citation potential. Research limitations： Because of the small numbers involved we were not able to make a distinction between publications in Nature, Science or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Practical implications： These results suggest that the better Chinese research results are of a similar level as those by American colleagues. Originality/value： It is well-known that the number of citations per publication by Chinese authors is still lagging with respect to leading scientific nations and in particular compared with the USA. We have shown that this difference does not necessarily hold in contributions in Nature, Science or the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
