摘要： The Science Citation Index (SCI) was introduced primarily as a method of information retrieval but has also been used as an objective measure of the quality of an academic article. The SCI also provides the scientific community with a citations database indicating the number of cited references in indexed articles. In fact the impact factor is a widespread used and acknowledged source for judging the quality of a researcher. For several reasons, the SCI seems to be more relevant. Because of this importance, there have been many pros and cons regarding the feasibility and potential utility of the SCI as a mean of academic evaluation in the Chinese scientific community. Overall, China%27s share in the world scientific literature is much less than that of many other countries. Data on the observed citation impact of Chinese research in different fields, including medicine, show that the work done in China in general is not integrated well into international research. This article intended to introduce some basic aspects with respect to the SCI and to present a personal view on its role as an international stage of academic merit.