Five years ago, there was debate in the Chinese scientific community over the country's funding system that allotted money according to the impact of the journals in which researchers publish their work.

An obsession with impact turned the research community into a "vanity fair", said Chinese chemist Wang Naixing in the prominent scientific journal Nature in August 2011.

Now the professors have ended their discussion, not because the environment is moderating, but because publishing in top scientific journals has become so common among Chinese researchers that, even many postgraduate students are joining the ranks.

Fu Qiaomei, a 32-year-old researcher at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has published 10 papers in two of the best-known journals－Science and Nature－including four published during her doctoral studies. But academic titles and research funding was not her major interest.

"For me, publishing in top journals proves my research potential, which helps me establish a reputation among my peers at home and abroad and thus helps my future research," she said.

Recognition by international peers means more chances to speak at or attend academic conferences.

"Selection of projects is of crucial importance. If you want to publish a paper in Cell, Nature or Science, you have to choose an academic issue of deep concern, and one that you can solve faster than other teams in the world," said Shi Yi, an associate research fellow from the Institute of Microbiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

In the team Shi works for, four people have published papers in Cell, Nature and Science during their doctoral studies.

Shi credits Gao Fu, director of the laboratory and Shi's doctoral supervisor, who was working at Oxford University before returning to China in 2004, for giving young researchers a chance.

"Professor Gao trains us with a broader vision to research hot issues, and provides better experimental facilities in the lab that allow us to make our ideas tangible. So the students have a better chance to internationalize our work," he said.

According to a survey released by China University Evaluation, a Shenzhen-based third party college evaluation agency, Chinese universities published more than 300 papers in Cell, Nature and Science in 2015, with Tsinghua the top ranking Chinese university, with 60 papers.

The figures do not include more than 100 research institutes affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Sciences, which are also high-yielding institutes for top journals.