The flow of high-level scientific and technological talents is a topic thathas attracted much attention. The paper analyzes the distribution characteristics and patterns of the inter-provincial mobility in the 2014-2019 ESI of high level researchers in China. It is shown that the distribution of high level scientists in China is significantly unbalanced, mainly concentrated in the areas with developed economic and science-education resources such as Beijing, Jiangsu, and Shanghai; the net inflow of high level scientists is mainly concentrated in Guangdong, Jiangsu and Sichuan provinces, the net outflow is mainly concentrated in the regions such as Jilin Province, Anhui Province and Liaoning Province; the net inflow institutions include mainly the University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Soochow University and Fudan University, and the net outflow institutions include Chinese Academy of Sciences and Peking University. However, due to the large number of high level scientists in the CAS, the outflow proportion of the CAS is not significant. In the end, the results of this paper will help managers formulate the talent policies, improve the talent system, properly allocate scientific research resources, and utilize the global elite scientific and technological talent resources.

highly cited researchers  /  inter-provincial mobility  /  patterns research