BEIJING, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Beijing has once again become the top science city in the world, according to the Nature Index global science city 2023 rankings, released on Wednesday.

It is the seventh time in a row that Beijing has ranked first in the global science city rankings, as measured by the Nature Index, which tracks the authorship of articles in 82 high-quality research journals.

In the top-10 list, Beijing is followed by the New York metropolitan area, Shanghai, Boston metropolitan area, San Francisco Bay Area, Nanjing, Baltimore-Washington, Guangzhou, Tokyo metropolitan area and Wuhan.

Besides Beijing, nine other Chinese cities are ranked among the top 20 science cities in the world.

According to the latest statistics, Beijing's patent stock in artificial intelligence ranks first in the world. Every 10,000 people in Beijing hold an average of 218.3 invention patents, ranking first in China.

"Beijing and other Asian cities are rapidly rising in the field of science, technology and innovation," said Zeng Rong, vice president of Tsinghua University. "There is a greater need for them to play an important role in international cooperation in the field."