Before revision:  Papers by big teams tend to receive more citations, but this alone is insufficient to explain the dominance of big teams in China, because the citation boost is roughly the same in every country. However, using the national average as the baseline, we find that the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) supports fewer small team works than the National Science Foundation of U.S. (NSF) does, implying that big teams are more preferred by grant agencies in China.
After revision:  Using the national average as the baseline, we find that the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) supports fewer small team works than the National Science Foundation of U.S. (NSF) does, implying that big teams are more preferred by grant agencies in China.