Constructing world first-class linguistics discipline is an important mission for the ‘Double First-class Initiative’, and the precondition for accomplishing this mission is to make it internationally known. Based on the data drawn from the major Databases of International Science Citation, this paper analyzes the current scenario and diffi culties in internationalizing the output of Chinese linguistic research. The analysis shows that when it comes to international publications, there exists a huge disparity between Chinese Mainland and the rest of the world in terms of both quantity and quality, signifying that there is a long way to go in order for the best Chinese universities to catch up with their counterparts in the world. The success of discipline construction depends on disciplinary orientation. If linguistics is a science, then language should be studied through the means of scientific approaches. My own practical experience of leading a research team shows that it is feasible to apply scientific methods in conducting linguistic research, and our accomplishments have drawn a lot of attention from researchers in areas of natural sciences. This leads to an argument that Chinese linguists should strive to carry their studies in a scientific way that is widely accepted by the international academia. As a conclusion, the paper argues that in terms of research topic, we should choose the issues that are specific to China but with international significance; that is, the findings should have wider implications contributing to the international research literature. I believe that this is the only way to enable our research to reach out to the world and stand tall on the world platform, thus to achieve the goal of building world-class universities.