LONDON - Japan continues to lead the Asia-Pacific region in research output, but it could be overtaken by China in the coming years, the famous scientific journal Nature said in a report published on Wednesday.

The report, named the 2012 Nature Publishing Index (NPI) 2012 Asia-Pacific,was released as a supplement to Nature. The NPI measures the output of research articles published in the 18 Nature-branded primary research journals over the calendar year. The supplement provides a snapshot of research in the Asia-Pacific in 2012.

According to the report, China is still in second place behind Japan, but it is growing faster than other countries and may take the first place within a couple of years. Most of the 51 Chinese institutions in the Asia-Pacific top 200 improved their ranking in the past year.

Overall,the region's scientists are publishing more high quality basic science than ever before: more than 28 percent of articles published in the high quality Nature research journals have an author from the Asia-Pacific region, compared with 19 percent in 2008.

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) is a publisher of high impact scientific and medical information in print and online. NPG publishes journals, online databases and services across the life, physical, chemical and applied sciences and clinical medicine.