Universities in China have been asked to stop their over-dependence on the Science Citation Index in evaluating teachers and students, a new guideline said on Sunday.

SCI, one of the world's most selective citation databases for scientific literature, has become one of the core criteria in awarding professional titles, evaluating teachers, students and disciplines, resource allocation and university rankings, said a guideline issued by the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Science and Technology.

Universities have paid too much attention to SCI and some have made having a high number of SCI papers their top priority, the guideline said.

For research in basic disciplines, evaluation should focus on the originality and scientific value of the research papers, not the number of SCI papers, the guideline said.

Application research and research in technological innovation should focus on the actual contribution of the research in real life, not the number of papers published, it said.

Universities and education authorities should improve peer-review in talent evaluation, not only focusing on SCI-related indexes, it said.

SCI-related indexes should not be used in school or discipline rankings, awarding professional titles, hiring teachers, evaluating a teacher's performance or resource allocation, the guideline said.

Universities should not list publishing SCI papers as a requirement for students to get degrees, it added.