The international development trends of space life science researches performed in space environment are depicted and analyzed using bibliometrics and text mining method. The overal situation, research outputs, and the latest development, as well as the development trend of each research discipline in space life sciences are emphatically analysed and estimated, so as to provide a reference for the space life science researches which will be performed in the forthcoming Chinese space station.

Focusing on scientific research output and drawing on the data provided by the WoS database developed by Thomson Reuters, this report analyzes the overall development of China’s science from the lens of absolute performance and relative performance. The statistics results show that: only second to the USA in terms of output measured by number of SCI papers, China has successfully maintained its high-ranking position in 2014. This, however, does not necessarily mean that China has outstood as a science power, with respect to relative performance, there exists a noticeable gap between China and developed countries. China should focus more on the improvement of the research efficiency, and complete the transformation from increased quantity of research output into improved quality.