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Effects of International Collaboration and Knowledge Moderation on China ’s Nanotechnology Research Impacts
Abstract
Purpose
Recent studies report that China is becoming a leading nation in the quantity of scientific output, including in the emerging field of nanotechnology. In nanotechnology, bibliometric measures based on citations also indicate improvements in the research impacts of Chinese scientific papers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of international collaboration, including the role of knowledge moderation through Chinese researchers who collaborate in both domestic and international scientific cooperation, on the impacts of Chinese nanotechnology research publications.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a nanotechnology publication dataset, bibliometric analysis and statistical testing are adopted to explore the issues raised in the study.
Findings
International collaboration, through direct collaboration and indirectly through Chinese knowledge moderators, has a positive impact on the quality of Chinese research, controlling for language, discipline, research capacity, and other factors.
Originality/value
The concept of a Chinese knowledge moderator is introduced to identify Chinese researchers who bridge scientific worlds by publishing scientific papers with both domestic and international colleagues. This concept is operationalized to capture the indirect impacts in China of international knowledge linkages and spillovers including those associated with overseas Chinese researchers and with overseas returnees.
... In general, on an organisational level, a central position of an inventor contributes to patents of higher quality (Beaudry and Schiffauerova 2011); we argue that this holds also true for the case of inventive regions. Knowledge output as a result of integrating knowledge from different regions is recognised to be of higher quality since it arises from diverse sources within heterogeneous knowledge networks (Singh 2008). Hence, we suggest connectivity -as in the number of network linksto be conducive for the quality of knowledge created. ...
... To proxy the quantity of exploitation-and exploration-oriented knowledge creation, we use the number of patent applications and the number of scientific publications, respectively. 11 To assess the quality of exploitative knowledge creation, we apply a composite index measuring patent quality as proposed by Squicciarini, Dernis, and Criscuolo (2013). The indicator is composed of patents forward citations, the number of claims, patent family size, and the patent generality index. ...
... Moreover, driven by bibliometric analysis, a huge variety of literature is dedicated to measure the quality (e.g. impact) of publications by means of bibliometric performance indicators(Zitt et al. 2003;Durieux and Gevenois 2010;Tang and Shapira 2012;Heimeriks and Boschma 2014). For patents, apart from citation-based measures of quality, other indicators such as the number claims, size of patent family, and composite indices thereof are widely-spread quality measures(Lanjouw and Schankerman 2004;Nagaoka, Motohashi, and Goto 2010;Beaudry and Schiffauerova 2011). ...
We argue that the effects of inter-regional R&D networks on regional knowledge creation vary for different modes of knowledge creation – exploitative and explorative – as well as for the quantity and quality of new knowledge created. To explore these differences across European regions, we estimate a set of spatial Durbin models (SDMs) with altering network indicators. The results show that the embedding in inter-regional networks is in general a significant driver for both modes of knowledge creation. While we find a higher positive impact of networks on exploitative than on explorative knowledge creation for the quality of knowledge output, the opposite is true for pure knowledge quantity.
... On the other hand, growing numbers of studies have explored the impact of international collaboration on research performance, but a majority of them confine the impact analyses to research productivity and research visibility (for a recent review, see Tang, 2012). For instance, a positive correlation between collaboration and research performance has been documented in the work of Narin and colleagues (1991); Tang and Shapira (2012); Katz and Martin (1997) ;Bordons, Gomez, Fernandez, Zulueta, and Mendez (1996); and Barjak and Robinson (2007). Meanwhile, conflicting evidence has also recently been reported (Adams, Black, Clemmons, & Stephan, 2005;Avkiran, 1997;Carayol & Matt, 2004;Duque et al., 2005;Leimu & Koricheva, 2005). ...
... Table 2 summarizes the basic statistics for these variables. 6 For more details on how these authors were selected and identified, refer to Tang and Shapira (2012). The independent variable was U.S.-China collaboration (USCOLLAB), and the control variables included scope of research collaboration, publication year, and subfields of nanotechnology. ...
The impact of international collaboration on research performance has been extensively explored over the past two decades. Most research, however, focuses on quantity and citation-based indicators. Using the turnover of keywords, this study develops an integrative approach, tracking and visualizing the shift of the research stream, and tests it within the context of U.S.–China collaboration in nanotechnology. The results show evidence in support of the linkage between the emergence of a new research stream of Chinese researchers when there is U.S.–China collaboration. We also find that the triggered research stream diffused further via extended coauthorship. Policy implications for science and technology development and resource allocation in the United States and China are discussed.
... The impact of international collaboration on research performance is not a new topic, having been extensively explored in prior studies. In spite of the rich volume of results in the literature, they are in disagreement ( Tang & Shapira, 2012). Since the seminar work of Katz and Martin (1997), the amount of evidence supporting the positive correlation between collaboration and research performance has been accumulating. ...
... A CKM is a researcher who bridges two different scientific communities of China and other countries via intensive collaboration ( Tang & Shapira, 2012). In this particular research, the notion is confined to the US and China collaboration context. ...
... In some countries, university accrediting organizations have even created international collaboration indexes to assess this as a valued dimension (Noh & Chang, 2019). Collective international research undertakings hold significant potential for accelerating future research, yet there is very limited examination of what factors, mechanisms, dynamics, and impact make IRC collaborative networks powerful knowledge generators (Chen et al., 2019;Li & Shapira, 2012). ...
Purpose: Provide insights on how social entrepreneurship (SE) knowledge can be more effectively generated by universities through the entrepreneurial creation and effective management of a knowledge network centered on international collaborative research; illuminate how one such network has enabled Latin American researchers to advance the knowledge and practice frontiers in the hemisphere and globally.
Methodology/Approach: Retrospective analysis of the two-decade evolution of the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network, a pioneering international research collaboration (IRC) of Ibero-American management schools.
Findings: Documents factors and dynamics enabling the successful creation and operation of international knowledge networks. Analyzes the key mechanisms for capturing synergies in collaborative research. Identifies specific effectiveness determinants for successfully operating an international social enterprise knowledge generation network. Identifies multiple impacts of a knowledge generation network.
Research Implications: Advances understanding of IRCs. Provides a model for assessing knowledge network multiple impacts. Identifies a series of future research opportunities and needs.
Practical Implications: Provides operational guidance for researchers developing or operating collaborative international knowledge networks.
Social Implications: Reveals the value of collaboration in international research and factors that contribute to effective collaboration. Social Entrepreneurship,
... La cooperación permite a los científicos trabajar en temas que requieren de una inversión costosa y el concurso de un gran número de investigadores (Jeong, Choi y Kim, 2014). Asimismo, los trabajos realizados bajo redes de cooperación multinacional suelen tener una mayor visibilidad (Tang y Shapira, 2012;Potter, Szomszor y Adams, 2020). ...
En este artículo se examina la producción científica en México sobre el nuevo coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2 o covid-19). Analizamos los artículos nacionales que aparecen en Scopus en el periodo enero-octubre de 2020. Nos enfocamos esencialmente en cinco aspectos: 1) comparar la producción nacional en torno al covid-19 con la de otros países; 2) examinar la relación entre el gasto en investigación y desarrollo (IyD) y el número de artículos sobre el covid-19; 3) estudiar el rol de la colaboración internacional sobre la producción académica nacional; 4) identificar las instituciones que más artículos generan sobre el tema; 5) construir un mapa de términos a partir de los títulos y resúmenes de las 565 publicaciones nacionales, con el objetivo de identificar las áreas de investigación donde trabajan los científicos mexicanos.
... Some researchers used bibliometric as indicators for research collaboration to study some factors which influence, such as the field of discipline (Qin, Lancaster, & Bryce, 1997), geographical (Ponds, Oort, & Frenken, 2007), and also to measure the degree of collaboration (Liao & Yen, 2012). The researchers are also interested in the impact of research collaboration to enhance the quality of research output measured by paper quality which was revealed by He, Geng and Campbell-Hunt (2009) and Frenken, Oort and Verburg (2007), also in nanotechnology research by Tang and Shapira (2012). The deeper analysis conducted by Rigby and Edler (2005), found that research collaboration with stronger network produces higher quality of output. ...
p>Research collaboration accross countries is known as a promising strategy to enhance science and technology capacity and is more popular for researchers as it contributes to research productivity. In the context of a developing economy, like Indonesia, the goal of international research collaboration is to increase scientific capacity of researchers in developing economy, however limited information how the international research collaboration could promote innovation. This paper aims to reveal research results in medical research collaboration between institution in Indonesia and other countries and how the collaboration could promote innovation. Case study of eight international collaboration research projects in medical research were utilized, in which Indonesian researchers worked collaboratively with foresign researchers. The reseach found that international research collaboration has opened opportunities for Indonesian researchers to learn and upgrade their capability and be able to contribute to scientific knowledge. Collaborative research in the medical areana requires long term research and significant funding support. Based on the case studies, none of international research projects reached commercialization stage, because clinical research requires significant funding and the involvement of industry as clinical trials would enhance innovation.
Keywords: international research collaboration, innovation capacity, medical innovation, collaboration process, Indonesia.</p
... The structural holes theory also gives an interesting perspective to academic mobility in enhancing collaboration impact. The moderating role of returning scholars has been observed in Chinese nanotechnology: articles prepared by Chinese scholars together with returnees were published in journals with a higher impact factor than those written with no such support (Tang & Shapira, 2012). Similarly, the foreign work experience of Argentinian returnees increased the propensity to publish collaborative papers in high impact factor journals (Jonkers & Cruz-Castro, 2013). ...
... Collaborations are differentiated in the literature between domestic and international collaborations. Existing literature argues that international collaborations are preferable over domestic ones as they seem to produce higher impact (Jeong et al. 2014;Leydesdorff et al. 2014;Tang and Shapira 2012;Wagner et al. 2018). Ebersberger et al. (2014) found that, while a high level of regional technological specialization and technological variety were negatively correlated with domestic extra-regional collaborations, technological variety was positively associated with the propensity to collaborate with foreign partners. ...
The pattern and impact of scientific collaborations depends on a country’s or region’s development stage. Prior to promoting scientific collaborations, it is crucial to understand what types of collaboration are more beneficial. By taking the stage of regional scientific development into consideration, this paper investigates the effect of various collaborations on regional scientific output. Our results highlight the differences between collaboration effects across regions at various capability levels. Scientifically weak regions benefit from more concentrated collaboration, in particular with advanced domestic regions. However, scientifically strong regions can benefit from a centrally located position in a broader collaboration network. Findings from this analysis indicate that international collaborations might not be beneficial a priori. Whether or not one region benefits from international collaborations depends on this region’s local capacity. Being embedded in a broad network structure can help increase one region’s publication output. However, such benefit is limited only to regions that have relatively higher research capacity.
... In terms of both production and impact, the country raised the quality of its publications and increased its share in the total world research output. This trend was not limited in fundamental research but also involved technological development, as shown by the increase of patent activities (Ma et al. 2009) in some fields of material science (Cyranoski 2009) and nanoscience (Tang and Shapira 2012;Guan and Ma 2007). On the international collaboration front, China became with the United States and the United Kingdom the country most deeply involved in scholar mobility (Robinson-Garcia et al. 2018). ...
This paper studies the relationship between leadership, team size, and citation impact in China’s international research output from 1980 to 2016, measured in terms of number of authors, institutions, countries, and citations. Distinction is here made between leading and non-leading Chinese international collaborations, which respectively refer to papers whose first or corresponding author is affiliated to a Chinese institution and papers co-authored by researchers from a Chinese institution but whose first and corresponding authors are not. Analysis at the individual, institutional, and country level show that while average team size by paper increases over the period, the main collaboration mode remains bilateral at the country level. We also observe a positive relationship between team size and research impact up to a certain point, but Chinese-led international collaborations tend to imply smaller teams and have lower impact than non-leading collaborations.
... For the present study, we have selected few of them and presented here. Tang and Shapira (2012) examined the bibliometric analysis in terms of on international collaboration and knowledge moderation on China's nanotechnology, Heinze, et al (2007) carried out and identified the research results on nanotechnology and human genetics, Kostoff, et al (2006) found the structure and infrastructure of the global nanotechnology research output, Lee (2006) investigated the nanotechnology patent and followed by Youtie;Shapira and Porter (2008) analyzed the research papers and citations on nanotechnology. Aytac (2010) studied with G7 countries such as franc, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK, USA, and Canada and the results show that based on the scientific collaboration in terms of scientific publications the co-authorship relationship growth rate was progressively increased during the period of 1990Carley & Tang (2012) described the study based on the publication activity on nanotechnology during 1990-2009. ...
A scientometric assessment of the scientific publications has been considered in this analysis by examining annual growth rate of publications, collaborative countries, and territories, preferred subject areas and research work, prolific organizations and institutions and top-ranked journals and highly productive papers etc. This paper focuses on the literature growth and development in Nanotechnology in Canada as reflected in the web of science data database. During the period between 1994 and 2014, a total 576 scientific research papers along with cited references are 34955 were published in the field in Canada. The average number of literature output were published per year was 33.88 and the greatest number of publications were published in 2013 and 2014 respectively a total number of authors 2213 were identified and the maximum number of authors i.e. 364 and the mean value of 4.77 were in the year 2014. Out of 15804 citations, the greatest number of 2791 citations in the year 2008 (52 papers, 23 h-index) and highest average citation per paper were 60.74 in the year 2007. From this study, researchers, scientists, subject specialists, students, administrators, policy makers, academicians, Library and Information Science professionals, and faculty members will be benefited due to the scientific and effective investigation.
... Barjak and Robinson (2008) showed that multinational teams needed to find the right mix between domestic and foreign researchers to become more productive and, in particular, that the most successful groups were those with an important domestic core and an appropriate selection and integration of scientists from abroad. On the other hand, Tang and Shapira (2012), Abbasi and Jaafari (2013) and Adams (2013) focused on the quality of the production of scientific knowledge and provided empirical evidence of the association between multinational teams and the impact of research publications (e.g., citation impact). In particular, it was observed that external collaborations at department or institution level had a positive effect on the impact of research publications. ...
PhD programmes are considered as transmission channels to provide specialisation and skills to students who will be employed as highly‐qualified workers or researchers. Focusing on the Spanish case, they are exerting a positive influence on workers’ careers since doctorate holders have a privileged situation in the labour market. This article analyses international mobility's effects on some aspects associated with doctorate holders’ careers such as their wages and how their current employment is related to their doctoral studies. The methodology applied consists in developing, on the one hand, a wage econometric specification and, on the other, a probit model, taking into account the possible mismatch between the training acquired in the doctoral studies and the educational requirements of the current job. In both cases, the dependent variables are explained by a set of regressors and a dummy variable showing whether doctorate holders have spent time in another country once completed their doctoral studies.
... Garg (2002) The findings suggested that the strong occurrence of research output in Materials Science, Physical Chemistry, and Applied Physics and also focused on the pharmaceutical products which have recently applied in Chinese Traditional Medicine and finally the collaborative research links were not good between organizations during the period of study. Tang and Shapira (2012) observed that China is a leading one in terms of quantity of research output in the emerging field of nanotechnology. This research investigated the impact of Chinese research articles and identified the effects of international collaboration and the Chinese researchers who collaborate in both national and international cooperation. ...
The purpose of this paper is to identify the global scientific publications of Nanotechnology research, and a significant emerging thrust area that has huge potential to improve information understanding, organization, decision making and administration. This study retrieved scholarly communications published during 2001-2015 from various versions such as Science Citation Index (SCI), Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), and Arts & Humanities Citation Index (ACHI) which are available on Web of Science. The scientometric analysis was performed from characteristics of global output, institutional, core journals, continental, countries/territories and topical aspects. Basic statistical methods, activity index, relative growth rate and doubling time and CAGR were applied to the selected data. The characteristics of global publications identified that Nanotechnology research has improved stage, along with huge participation and collaboration. The huge papers were found in 2015. The Activity Index was high (140.41) in 2015 whereas the least (31.81) in 2003. Majority of records was from China (24.34 %) and ranked first and followed by United States with 22.83%. India has got sixth position with a total output of 54, 190 (5.41%) contributing a share of total output. The relative growth rate of Nanotechnology (global level) has been progressed from 0.6 in 2001 to 2.05 in 2015 and its average relative growth rate was 1.518 and the doubling time showed the decline trend. The highest exponential growth rate was 1.27 with 33, 472 research output in 2004 and it is noticed that except the period 2002 to 2005. This study focused that there was a fluctuation trend after 2006. This is the first study to evaluate global literature output trends in Nanotechnology, which might provide a potential guide for the future research. These indicators lead Nanotechnology to formulate policy, setting priorities, and undertake strategic planning, monitoring, and evaluation.
... The structural holes theory also gives an interesting perspective to academic mobility in enhancing collaboration impact. The moderating role of returning scholars has been observed in Chinese nanotechnology: articles prepared by Chinese scholars together with returnees were published in journals with a higher impact factor than those written with no such support (Tang & Shapira, 2012). Similarly, the foreign work experience of Argentinian returnees increased the propensity to publish collaborative papers in high impact factor journals (Jonkers & Cruz-Castro, 2013). ...
Science is increasingly defined by multidimensional collaborative networks. Despite the unprecedented growth of scientific collaboration around the globe—the collaborative turn—geography still matters for the cognitive enterprise. The spatial location and distance between scholars and research organisations affect their likelihood to collaborate and to achieve results that expand the knowledge frontier. At the same time, the developmental prospects of cities, regions, and countries result from, and depend on, their place in the global network of research collaboration.
This book explores how geography conditions scientific collaboration and how collaboration affects the spatiality of science. Addressing these questions requires the reconstruction of historical developments that led to the collaborative turn in science, the examination of mutual relations between science and places, and the analysis of spatial patterns of research collaboration at various levels: from individual to global. By combining a vast array of approaches, concepts, and methodologies, the volume offers a comprehensive theoretical framework for the geography of scientific collaboration.
The momentous role of collaboration for contemporary science implies that understanding the processes and patterns of research collaboration is now essential, not only for scholars interested in science studies, but also for policymakers and managers of research organisations. Those more practically oriented readers may be particularly attracted by the case studies of scientific collaboration policies from the European Union, the United States, and China, as well as the catalogue of tools for scientific collaboration policy.
... Based on bibliographic coupling analysis and main path analysis, we find that the impact of IRC on research performance has been generally investigated by prior research, especially by recent studies (e.g., Hayati and Didegah, 2010;Tang, 2013;Zhou and Tian, 2014). However, there is still controversy on this topic despite a large amount of research findings from current studies (Li and Shapira, 2012). ...
International research collaboration (IRC) has been increasingly important as an emerging area of innovation studies. This study reviews the intellectual base, main research trajectories and intellectual communities of the IRC research domain over the period 1957–2015. It integrates qualitative review and three quantitative analyses including co-citation network analysis, main path analysis and bibliographic coupling analysis. The results show that the IRC research has gone through three phases, namely, “emergence” (1957–1991), “fermentation” (1992–2005) and “take-off” (2006–2015) phases. The co-citation network analysis confirms that the IRC research field has been developed under the influence of two pioneering studies related to bibliometrics research. The main research trajectories in IRC studies over the three development phases and over the whole period are identified based on the main path analysis, which shows that co-authorship analysis is the main research method in IRC studies. A bibliographic coupling analysis suggests that the whole IRC research domain can be classified into five distinct intellectual areas: drivers of IRC, IRC patterns, IRC effects, IRC networks and IRC measurement. Seven topics for future research are also identified.
... Notwithstanding, not being a bilingual (Spanish/English) or English language publishing journal would reduce the visibility and impact of other publications, particularly like Chinese Journal of Parasitology publishing in Chinese. The international cooperation could increase the global reach of the journals positively by influencing the quality of research [31][32][33][34]. The lack of uniformity of some variables between databases limits the analysis and comparison of information. ...
Paragonimiasis is highly prevalent endemic food-borne disease in Southeast Asia and Latin America, and constitutes a major public health concern. A bibliometric analysis was performed about the worldwide scientific production of paragonimiasis. We browsed in the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-E) (1957-2015), Scopus (1976-2015), Medline/PubMed/GoPubMed® (1970-2015), ScIELO (1981-2014) and LILACS (1985-2011). All types of articles were included and categorized by year of publication, number, type of scientific article, city and institution of origin, international cooperation, scientific journal, impact factor, language of publication, authors and H index. In SCI-E, 1,028 manuscripts were recovered, while Japan (21.9%) and the USA (17.7%) were the countries with highest scientific production. In this database, Asian region studies received 5,454 citations (H index=32). In Scopus 2161 items were recovered, corresponding to 45.8% of Asian countries. Japan (18.2%) was the first with the University of Miyazaki (11.7% of the country); South Korea (9.5%) was second with the Seoul National University (11.2% of the country). In SciELO 29 items were found, with no contributions from the Asian region. In LILACS 1487 articles were found (22.9% covering Asia). Among the databases, the Journal of Parasitology (Impact factor=1.227) showed the highest number of manuscripts and “Agatsuma T”, from Japan, was the author with most records. Japan and South Korea lead global scientific production on paragonimiasis. By contrast, in Latin America, production has been extremely low especially in the last five years.
... China has suffered from a loss of talents in the past as its brightest students went abroad and never returned. With the rapid development of the domestic economy, the expansion of R&D spending, and the growth of technology-oriented industries, China is increasingly attracting Chinese returnees into academia and industry (Tang & Shapira, 2012, p. 106-107). Israel, Singapore, Switzerland and Sweden had the competitive status of a nicher. ...
Management: Journal of Sustainable Business and Management Solutions in Emerging Economies
(Management, Journal for Theory and Practice Management)
... World Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences macro level have been taken into consideration for the present study. Tang and Shapira [4] examined the bibliometric analysis in terms of international collaboration and knowledge moderation on China"s nanotechnology, Heinze, et al [5] identified the research on nanotechnology and human genetics, Kostoff, et al [6] found the structure and infrastructure of the global nanotechnology research output, Lee [7] investigated the nanotechnology patent and followed by Youtie; Shapira and Porter [8] analyzed the research papers and citations on nanotechnology. Aytac [9] studied with G7 countries such as ...
... World Journal of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences macro level have been taken into consideration for the present study. Tang and Shapira [4] examined the bibliometric analysis in terms of international collaboration and knowledge moderation on China"s nanotechnology, Heinze, et al [5] identified the research on nanotechnology and human genetics, Kostoff, et al [6] found the structure and infrastructure of the global nanotechnology research output, Lee [7] investigated the nanotechnology patent and followed by Youtie; Shapira and Porter [8] analyzed the research papers and citations on nanotechnology. Aytac [9] studied with G7 countries such as ...
This paper focuses on the literature growth in Nanotechnology in
Canada retrieved from web of science data database. This paper tries to
know the highly cited articles, authors and other parameters with 576
scientific research papers during the period between 1994 and 2014.
The average number of literature output per year was 33.88 and the
highest number of publications was published during 2013 – 2014. A
total number of authors was 2213 and the maximum number of authors
was 364 with the mean value of 4.77 (2014). Out of 15804 citations,
the large number of (2791) citations was in 2008 (52 papers, 23 hindex)
and highest average citation per paper was 60.74 in 2007.
... Unsurprisingly, all 120 heavy hitter nanotechnology papers are written in English. Articles written in English are more likely to be cited by researchers than are other papers of the same level of quality (Hu, Carley, & Tang, 2012; Liang, Rousseau, & Zhong, 2013). English is now the key language of communication in the global scientific community , although we also need to keep in mind limitations in the coverage of non-English language journals in the WoS. ...
... This conjecture is partially supported by our data. When grouping Hong Kong's SSCI publications by Chinese versus non-Chinese surnames based on the thesauri developed by Tang and Shapira (2012), we found that about 86% involve at least one researcher with a Chinese family name over the examined period. When excluding foreign institutions, the figure remains at the same rate. ...
... This conjecture is partially supported by our data. When grouping Hong Kong's SSCI publications by Chinese versus non-Chinese surnames (Tang & Shapira, 2012), we found that about 86% involve at least one researcher with a Chinese family name over the examined period. When excluding foreign institutions, the figure remains at the same rate. ...
The phenomenon of China's rise as an emerging scientific power has been well documented, yet the development of its social science is less explored. Utilizing up-to-date Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) publication data (1978–2013), this paper probes the patterns and dynamics of China's social science research via bibliometric analyses. Our research indicates that despite the national orientation of social science research and the linguistic obstacle of publishing for an international audience, China's publications in the SSCI dataset have been rising in terms of volume, world share, and global ranking. But China is still not yet a major player in the arena of social sciences, as is evidenced by the number of Chinese journals indexed in SSCI and the lack of Olympic players. Team research features China's international publishing in social science, but the research outputs are highly unbalanced at regional and institutional levels.
... As research becomes more complex due to technological development, more attention is given to the benefits of collaboration. Research collaboration is generally presumed to be valuable and useful, particularly to policymakers (Tang & Shapira 2012 (1997:3) also agree that the multi-author publication, frequently referred to as a co-authored publication, has been used as a basic counting unit to measure collaborative activity. Measuring research collaboration by using co-author analysis is based on the principle that, when two or more researchers jointly sign a paper, intellectual and/or social links can be assumed to exist between them (Gauthier 1998:13). ...
Due to technological developments, innovation and globalisation, research is becoming more complex, requiring wide-ranging skills. A lack of resources and publishing platforms has led to low research output in archives and records management (ARM) in most developing countries in Africa. However, experienced researchers from different countries can collaborate by sharing and transferring knowledge and making optimal use of resources that will lead to the sustainability of research output. Utilising informetric analysis, as well as co-authorship as the measure for collaboration, this article examines the nature, trend and type of ARM research collaboration in Africa by identifying individuals, institutions and countries that collaborate in order to recommend ways of improving such activities. Quantitative data was extracted from the database of African Journals Online (AJOL) and analysed. The key finding suggested a low level of collaboration among
ARM researchers, with the work produced emanating mostly from one institution. The study argues that social and physical proximity contribute to research collaboration in ARM in Africa. The scarcity of literature on ARM in Africa led the article to recommend more collaborative projects whereby established researchers nurture and mentor novice researchers to become self-sustainable in producing scholarly literature. Hopefully, this would help to formulate research agendas to address grand societal challenges, such as a lack of accountability, poor audit results and poor service delivery, which all stem from a breakdown in the records system and a non-sustainable ARM profession in Africa, in order to become on par with the rest of the world.
... As research becomes more complex due to technological development, more attention is given to the benefits of collaboration. Research collaboration is generally presumed to be valuable and useful, particularly to policymakers (Tang & Shapira 2012 (1997:3) also agree that the multi-author publication, frequently referred to as a co-authored publication, has been used as a basic counting unit to measure collaborative activity. Measuring research collaboration by using co-author analysis is based on the principle that, when two or more researchers jointly sign a paper, intellectual and/or social links can be assumed to exist between them (Gauthier 1998:13). ...
Due to technological developments, innovation and globalisation, research is becoming more complex, requiring wide-ranging skills. A lack of resources and publishing platforms has led to low research output in archives and records management (ARM) in most developing countries in Africa. However, experienced researchers from different countries can collaborate by sharing and transferring knowledge and making optimal use of resources that will lead to the sustainability of research output. Utilising informetrics analysis, as well as co-authorship as the measure for collaboration, this article examines the nature, trend and type of ARM research collaboration in Africa by identifying individuals, institutions and countries that collaborate in order to recommend ways of improving such activities. Quantitative data was extracted from the database of African Journals Online (AJOL) and analysed. The key finding suggested a low level of collaboration among ARM researchers, with the work produced emanating mostly from one institution. The study argues that social and physical proximity contribute to research collaboration in ARM in Africa. The scarcity of literature on ARM in Africa led the article to recommend more collaborative projects whereby established researchers nurture and mentor novice researchers to become self-sustainable in producing scholarly literature. Hopefully, this would help to formulate research agendas to address grand societal challenges, such as a lack of accountability, poor audit results and poor service delivery, which all stem from a breakdown in the records system and a non-sustainable ARM profession in Africa, in order to become on par with the rest of the world.
... The role and potential of innovative technology-based firms in national and regional development has found a receptive audience among Chinese policymakers and Chinese media (Momaya, 2011;Foo, 2011;Tang and Shapira, 2012). A variety of policy measures at different administration levels has been introduced in China to foster enterprise innovation and technological development. ...
Purpose
– This paper aims to explore pathways and issues of small business technological commercialization in China, probing the particular characteristics of the Chinese context and the ways in which innovation frameworks, institutions and business strategies are embedded.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors examine in detail the case of an innovative Chinese indigenous small firm engaged in innovative nanotechnology materials development. The strategies and push- and pull factors underlying the company’s innovation practices were investigated. The proposition that the institutional relationships formed to secure access to research expertise and aid business survival also influence the ways in which technology is commercialized was explored.
Findings
– It was found that while technological development is company-driven, it is also highly connected to regional innovation structures and networks. This stimulates a “spin-in” rather than a university-led model of development, as this small firm embeds its technology and business development strategies in conjunction with partner organizations. Broader management and policy implications are discussed.
Originality/value
– While China has rapidly expanded scientific research in emerging technologies such as nanotechnology, commercialization through the development of entrepreneurial technology-oriented small companies faces a series of challenges. New enterprises in the emerging area of nanotechnology encounter problems of technology transfer and intellectual property management, capital acquisition, market uncertainty and constrained access to global markets.
... Unsurprisingly, all 120 heavy hitter nanotechnology papers are written in English. Articles written in English are more likely to be cited by researchers than are other papers of the same level of quality (Hu, Carley, & Tang, 2012; Liang, Rousseau, & Zhong, 2013). English is now the key language of communication in the global scientific community , although we also need to keep in mind limitations in the coverage of non-English language journals in the WoS. ...
There is increasing evidence that citations to Chinese research publications are rising sharply. A series of reasons have been highlighted in previous studies. This research explores another possibility—whether there is a “clubbing” effect in China's surge in research citations, in which a higher rate of internal citing takes place among influential Chinese researchers. Focusing on the most highly cited research articles in nanotechnology, we find that a larger proportion of Chinese nanotechnology research citations are localized within individual, institutional, and national networks within China. Both descriptive and statistical tests suggest that highly cited Chinese papers are more likely than similar U.S. papers to receive internal and localized citations. Tentative explanations and policy implications are discussed.
Objetivo: Realizar un estudio bibliométrico de la producción científica en lupus eritematoso sistémico en Colombia que describa su distribución, tendencia de desarrollo, patrón de colaboraciones nacionales e internacionales, y su impacto en la comunidad científica. Fecha y lugar de ejecución del estudio: la búsqueda fue realizada el 12 de octubre de 2017 en Bogotá, Colombia. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio bibliométrico descriptivo que evaluó las bases de datos Web of Science, Scopus y Scielo. Se analizaron la producción nacional anual, número de artículos, ciudad e institución de origen, cooperación nacional e internacional, revistas científicas, lenguaje de publicación y número de citas. Resultados: Scopus aportó 307 artículos; Web of Science, 270, y Scielo, 90. El número máximo de citaciones por artículo (19,8) y de índice h nacional (41) se encontraron en Scopus. Más del 80 % de los artículos, sin importar la base, se publicaron en los últimos 10 años. La Universidad del Rosario y la Universidad de Antioquia son las instituciones más prolíficas. Las regiones con mayor producción son Bogotá y Antioquia, seguidas por Valle del Cauca. Existe un número importante de colaboraciones nacionales e internacionales, que difieren según la base de datos. Conclusión: Se evidencia el crecimiento de la investigación en lupus eritematoso sistémico en Colombia; sin embargo, su impacto tiene un largo camino por recorrer. Se debe fortalecer el interés en reumatología e investigación desde el pregrado, particularmente con el apoyo a los semilleros de investigación y a los jóvenes investigadores.
Delineating the emergence of nanotechnologies that offer new functionalities is an important element in an anticipatory approach to the governance of nanotechnology and its potential impacts. This paper examines the transition to next generation active nanotechnologies which incorporate functions that respond to the environment or systems concepts that combine devices and structures that are dynamic and which may change their states in use. We develop an approach to identifying these active nanotechnologies and then use bibliometric analysis to examine the extent of research papers and patents involving these concepts. We also examine references to environmental, health, and safety concepts in these papers, given that these next generation nanotechnologies are likely to have risk profiles that are different from those of first-generation passive nanomaterials. Our results show a steady growth overall in focus on active nanotechnologies in the research literature and in patents over the study period of 1990–2010. We also find an increase in consideration given to environmental, health, and safety topics. While gaps are highlighted in our understanding of research and innovation in active nanotechnologies, the results suggest that there is beginning to be a shift to active nanotechnologies, with the implication that governance processes need to be conscious of this shift and to prepare for it.
Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to examine sustainability with an emphasis on China.
Design/methodology/approach
– The paper examines previous research on sustainability and polymer chemistry to provide a better understanding of the importance of sustainability and technology in China.
Findings
– There are many different perspectives when it comes to sustainability and that multiple stakeholders need to be considered when examining sustainability.
Originality/value
– As the longest serving member of the American Chemical Society (ACS) accreditation committee and a Fellow of the ACS, the perspective on which this paper is based comes from over 1,000 publications and over 45 years of active research in the sciences and technology.
Innovation underpins competitiveness, is crucial to addressing societal challenges, and its support has become a major public policy goal. But what really works in innovation policy, and why? This Handbook, compiled by leading experts in the field, is the first comprehensive guide to understanding the logic and effects of innovation polices. The Handbook develops a conceptualisation and typology of innovation policies, presents meta-evaluations for 16 key innovation policy instruments and analyses evidence on policy-mix. For each policy instrument, underlying rationales and examples are presented, along with a critical analysis of the available impact evidence. Providing access to primary sources of impact analysis, the book offers an insightful assessment of innovation policy practice and its evaluation.
Although many studies have been conducted to clarify the factors that affect the citation frequency of “academic papers,” there are few studies where the citation frequency of “patents” has been predicted on the basis of statistical analysis, such as regression analysis. Assuming that a patent based on a variety of technological bases tends to be an important patent that is cited more often, this study examines the influence of the number of cited patents’ classifications and compares it with other factors, such as the numbers of inventors, classifications, pages, and claims. Multiple linear, logistic, and zero-inflated negative binomial regression analyses using these factors are performed. Significant positive correlations between the number of classifications of cited patents and the citation frequency are observed for all the models. Moreover, the multiple regression analyses demonstrate that the number of classifications of cited patents contributes more to the regression than do other factors. This implies that, if confounding between factors is taken into account, it is the diversity of classifications assigned to backward citations that more largely influences the number of forward citations.
The impacts of international collaboration on research performance have been extensively explored in the last two decades. Most research, however, focuses on quantity and citation-based indicators. Utilizing the turnover of keywords, this study develops a new method tracking the shift of the research stream and tests it within the context of U.S.-China collaboration in nanotechnology. The results find evidence in support of the linkage between the emergence of new research stream(s) of Chinese researchers in the event of U.S.-China collaboration. It also finds that the triggered research stream diffused further via extended coauthorship. Policy implications for both the U.S. and China S&T development are discussed in the end.
China has become the fifth leading nation in terms of its share of the world's scientific publications. The citation rate of papers with a Chinese address for the corresponding author also exhibits exponential growth. More specifically, China has become a major player in critical technologies like nanotechnology. Although it is difficult to delineate nanoscience and nanotechnology, we show that China has recently achieved a position second only to that of the USA. Funding for R&D has been growing exponentially, but since 1997 even more in terms of business expenditure than in terms of government expenditure. It seems that the Chinese government has effectively used the public-sector research potential to boost the knowledge-based economy of the country. Thus, China may be achieving the ("Lisbon") objectives of the transition to a knowledge-based economy more broadly and rapidly than its western counterparts. Because of the sustained increase in Chinese government funding and the virtually unlimited reservoir of highly-skilled human resources, one may expect a continuation of this growth pattern in the near future.
Under the sponsorship of the U.S. National Science Foundation, CHI Research, Inc. developed the bibliometric indicators for the U.S. National Science Board'sScience Indicators Reports starting withScience Indicators 1972. In the work reported here, for the Commission of the European Communities, CHI has extended the Science Indicators techniques and database to a study of publication, coauthorship and citation within 28 scientific fields related to various European Community programs.Perhaps the most important finding of the research was that internationally coauthored papers — papers authored by scientists affiliated with institutions in more than one EC country — were cited two times as highly as papers authored by scientists working at a single institution within a single country. These EC-EC internationally coauthored papers were cited as highly as EC-Non EC and Non-EC papers. This indicates that the internationally linked European science is of as high impact as any other science in the world.A second key finding was that, after compensating for national scientific size, the degree of international coauthorship did not appear to be particularly dependent upon size. However, linguistic and cultural factors were found to be very strong. The patterns of coauthorship amongst the European countries are far from homogeneous, and are quite heavily affected by linguistic, historical, and cultural factors.Finally, it was found that international coauthorship is increasing steadily, both within and outside of the Community, with some evidence that international cooperation is increasing more rapidly in scientific fields that have been targeted by the Commission.
We examined the effects of different types of collaboration on the citation rates of 837 research papers published in Oecologia
from 1998 through 2000. Multiauthored papers had higher annual citation rates, but also higher self-citation rates, than single-authored
papers. Interdisciplinary collaboration between institutions increased citation rates, whereas in-house collaboration reduced
them. Contrary to our predictions, international collaboration had no effect on the citation rates of ecological papers, and
US ecologists benefited from collaboration more than their European colleagues. Altogether, our results indicate that scientific
collaboration in ecology has a rather minor effect on the impact of the resulting publications, as measured by their citation
rates.
The ability to delineate the boundaries of an emerging technology is central to obtaining an understanding of the technology’s
research paths and commercialization prospects. Nowhere is this more relevant than in the case of nanotechnology (hereafter
identified as “nano”) given its current rapid growth and multidisciplinary nature. (Under the rubric of nanotechnology, we
also include nanoscience and nanoengineering.) Past efforts have utilized several strategies, including simple term search
for the prefix nano, complex lexical and citation-based approaches, and bootstrapping techniques. This research introduces
a modularized Boolean approach to defining nanotechnology which has been applied to several research and patenting databases.
We explain our approach to downloading and cleaning data, and report initial results. Comparisons of this approach with other
nanotechnology search formulations are presented. Implications for search strategy development and profiling of the nanotechnology
field are discussed.
This article examines the relative positions with respect to nanotechnology research publications of the European Union (EU),
the United States (US), Japan, Germany, China, and three Asian Tiger nations (South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan). The analysis
uses a dataset of nanotechnology publication records for the time period 1990 through 2006 (part year) extracted from the
Science Citation Index obtained through the Web of Science and was developed through a two-stage modularized Boolean approach.
The results show that although the EU and the US have the highest number of nanotechnology publications, China and other Asian
countries are increasing their publications rapidly, taking an ever-larger proportion of the total. When viewed in terms of
the quality-based measure of citations, Asian nanotechnology researchers also show growth in recent years. However, by such
citation measures, the US still maintains a strongly dominant position, followed by the EU.
China has become the fifth leading nation in terms of its share of the world's scientific publications. The citation rate of papers with a Chinese address for the corresponding author also exhibits exponential growth. More specifically, China has become a major player in critical technologies like nanotechnology. Although it is difficult to delineate nanoscience and nanotechnology, we show that China has recently achieved a position second only to that of the USA. Funding for R&D has been growing exponentially, but since 1997 even more in terms of business expenditure than in terms of government expenditure. It seems that the Chinese government has effectively used the public-sector research potential to boost the knowledge-based economy of the country. Thus, China may be achieving the (“Lisbon”) objectives of the transition to a knowledge-based economy more broadly and rapidly than its western counterparts. Because of the sustained increase in Chinese government funding and the virtually unlimited reservoir of highly skilled human resources, one may expect a continuation of this growth pattern in the near future.
This paper examines the rapid growth of China in the field of nanotechnology and the rise of collaboration between China and
the US in this emerging domain. Chinese scientific papers in nanotechnology are analyzed to indicate overall trends, leading
fields and the most prolific institutions. Patterns of China–US nanotechnology paper co-authorship are examined over the period 1990–2009, with an analysis of how these patterns have
changed over time. The paper combines bibliometric analysis and science mapping. We find rapid development in the number of
China–US co-authored nanotechnology papers as well as structural changes in array of collaborative nanotechnology sub-fields. Implications
for both China and the US of this evolving relationship are discussed.
While collaboration is associated with higher article citation rates, a body of research has suggested that this is, in part,
related to the access to a larger social network and the increased visibility of research this entails, rather than simply
a reflection of greater quality. We examine the role of networks in article citation rates by investigating article publication
by the nine New Zealand Government-owned Crown Research Institutes (CRIs), drawing on the Science Citation Index. We analyse
an aggregate data set of all CRI publications with duplicates removed, and, in addition, investigate each CRI. We find that
a greater number of authors, countries and institutions involved in co-publication increases expected citation rates, although
there are some differences between the CRIs. However, the type of co-publication affects the expected citation rates. We discover
a 'periphery effect' where greater levels of co-publication with domestic institutions decreases expected citation rates.
We conclude that scientists working on the periphery looking to increase the visibility of their research should strive to
link their research to the international research community, particularly through co-publication with international authors.
This paper maps the domain of earth and environmental sciences (EES) and investigates the relationship between cognitive problem
structures and internationalisation patterns, drawing on the concepts of systemic versus cumulative global environmental change
(GEC) and mutual task dependence in scientific fields. We find that scientific output concentration and internationalisation
are significantly higher in the systemic GEC fields of Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences and Oceanography than in the cumulative
GEC fields Ecology and Water Resources. The relationship is explained by stronger mutual task dependence in systemic GEC fields.
In contrast, the portion of co-authorships with developing, emerging and transition countries among all international publications
is larger for Water Resources than for the three other fields, consistent with the most pressing needs for STI capacity development
in these countries.
In recent papers, the authors have studied basic regularities of author self-citations. The regularities are related to the ageing, to the relation between self-citations and foreign citations and to the interdependence of self-citations with other bibliometric indicators. The effect of multi-authorship on citation impact has been shown in other bibliometric studies, for instance, by Persson et al. (2004). The question arises whether those regularities imply any relation between number of co-authors and the extent of author self-citations. The results of the present paper confirm the common notion of such effects only in part. The authors show that at the macro level multi-authorship does not result in any exaggerate extent of self-citations.
Based on the curricula vitae and survey responses of 443 academic scientists affiliated with university research centers in the USA, we examine the longstanding assumption that research collaboration has a positive effect on publishing productivity. Since characteristics of the individual and the work environment are endogenously related to both collaboration and productivity, this study focuses on the mediating effect of collaboration on publishing productivity. By using the two-stage least squares analysis, the findings indicate that in the presence of moderating variables such as age, rank, grant, gender, marital status, family relations, citizenship, job satisfaction, perceived discrimination, and collaboration strategy, the simple number (‘normal count’) of peer-reviewed journal papers is strongly and significantly associated with the number of collaborators. However, the net impacts of collaboration are less clear. When we apply the same model and examine productivity by ‘fractional count’, dividing the number of publications by the number of authors, we find that number of collaborators is not a significant predictor of publishing productivity. In both cases, ‘normal count’ and ‘fractional count’, we find significant effects of research grants, citizenship, collaboration strategy, and scientific field. We believe that it is important to understand the effects of the individual and environmental factors for developing effective strategies to exploit the potential benefits of collaboration. We note that our focus is entirely at the individual level, and some of the most important benefits of collaboration may accrue to groups, institutions, and scientific fields.
<?Pub Caret> Networks and networking are viewed as ways of dealing with complex problems that beset both the state and society. Homelessness, health care, and crime are all viewed as problems that networks can manage better than single organizations can. This article views these problems as networks that must be confronted if Western democracies wish to deal with terrorism, drug smuggling, and the manifold pathologies that confront failed states. In this article we adopt the perspective of networks as problems. The majority of the literature on networks and collaboration is quite positive. Collaborative networks are seen as appropriate devices to tackle public management problems and successfully coordinate political, social, and economic action. From the level of global governance, European integration, sectoral policy networks at the national level, and service implementation networks at the local level, these devices are all viewed as ways of solving governance problems in a complex and differentiated world. The research proposed here intends to develop a more holistic view of this phenomenon by looking at dark networks. The article tries to evaluate how network structures and governance are used for criminal or immoral ends. Because the judgment of ends is inherently normative, we propose to talk about overt and legal versus covert and illegal networks. We then analyze where the similarities and differences between the two sets are and what we might be able to learn regarding both forms if we mirror them against each other. The article develops a set of propositions drawn from selected cases of drug‐trafficking networks, the diamond and weapons trade, and the Al Qaeda terrorist network.
The combination of knowledge and skills from different backgrounds or research cultures is often considered good for science. This paper describes the extent to which academic research teams in the life sciences draw on knowledge from different research cultures and how this is related to their research performance. We distinguish between international collaboration of research teams from different countries and cultural diversity of research teams resulting from team members with different countries of origin. Our results show that the most successful teams have a moderate level of cultural diversity; in addition, successful teams engage in collaboration activities with teams from other European countries and the US leading to joint publications. These results have implications for research team management and for research policy, in particular in relation to supporting measures for mobile scientists.
Although there have been many previous studies of research collaboration, comparatively little attention has been given to the concept of ‘collaboration’ or to the adequacy of attempting to measure it through co-authorship. In this paper, we distinguish between collaboration at different levels and show that inter-institutional and international collaboration need not necessarily involve inter-individual collaboration. We also show that co-authorship is no more than a partial indicator of collaboration. Lastly, we argue for a more symmetrical approach in comparing the costs of collaboration with the undoubted benefits when considering policies towards research collaboration.
Text mining was used to extract technical intelligence from the open source global nanotechnology and nanoscience research literature (SCI/SSCI databases). The following were identified: (i) the nanotechnology/nanoscience research literature infrastructure (prolific authors, key journals/institutions/ countries, most cited authors/journals/documents); (ii) the technical structure (pervasive technical thrusts and their inter-relationships); (iii) nanotechnology instruments and their relationships; (iv) potential nanotechnology applications; (v) potential health impacts and applications, and (vi) seminal nanotechnology literature. The results are summarized in this article.
Accelerating a trend noted in Science Watch® four years ago, the People's Republic of China has in recent years dramatically increased its output of scientific papers, while also seeing the citation impact of those papers steadily rise. In all, the figures clearly signify a nation rapidly securing prominence in world science. The graph to the right shows the number of papers indexed by Thomson Reuters between 1985 and 2007 that listed at least one author address in the People's Republic of China. (The chart also reflects comparable figures for other, selected Asian nations). From roughly 3,700 papers in 1985, China's representation in the database increased to nearly 80,000 papers in 2007—almost a doubling of the 40,000-odd papers indexed as recently as 2003. When Science Watch last surveyed China research in 2004 (15[5]: 1-2, September/October 2004), the nation's annual output of Thomson Reuters-indexed papers still fell shy of Japan's 2003 total of 75,000+ papers. Subsequently, as the current graph shows, China's rising trajectory in output intersected that of Japan in 2006 and soared past in 2007. In fact, among all nations, China ranked #2 by number of papers published during 2007, second only to the United States. Table 1 below details China's recent output, showing 20 main fields of science ranked according to the nation's percent share of Thomson Reuters-indexed papers in each field for the cumulative period 2003 to 2007. The table also shows the citation-impact figure (that is, cites per paper) for China in each field, along with the world cites-per-paper average.
I assess competing arguments on the determinants of scientists' citation patterns by developing a new approach to the multivariate study of citations that builds upon a network-analytic model. Using data on articles about celestial masers, an astrophysics research area, logistic regressions with robust standard errors examine the extent to which characteristics of both potentially citing and potentially cited papers influence the probability that a citation exists between the papers. The results identify significant positive, effects of cited article cognitive content and cited article quality, providing support for a normative interpretation of the allocation of citations in which citations reflect payment of intellectual debt. In contrast, indicators of an author's position within the stratification structure of science fail to significantly improve the fit of the model, and thus provide no support for the social constructivist claim that citations are rhetorical tools of persuasion. Furthermore, the lack of effects of social ties between citing and cited authors provides little support for the argument that authors who know one another are more likely to cite one another's work. Overall, these results suggest that authors are likely to cite those articles most relevant to their work in terms of intellectual content, and seem little concerned with the characteristics of authors who write them.
Introduction 1. Surprising Success 2. Learning the Silicon Valley System 3. Creating Cross-Regional Communities 4. Taiwan as Silicon Sibling 5. Taiwan as Partner and Parent 6. Manufacturing in Mainland China 7. IT Enclaves in India 8. The Argonaut Advantage Appendix A: Immigrant Professional and Networking Associations, Silicon Valley Appendix B: Survey Results: Immigrant Professionals in Silicon Valley Notes References Abbreviations Acknowledgments Index
Various bibliometric studies report that multiinstitutional or multinational authored papers are more frequently cited than papers that come from a single institute. The conclusion, however, that there is a systematic improvement of scientific success by cooperation on every level of scientific research in leading or mediocre research institutes might be misleading: In a citation analysis of 13 well-known research institutes in molecular biology there was no difference in the average citations per paper with regard to cooperations. In a subsample of 7 German institutes that difference found could be explained by selfcitations. In another case, all articles of a two year sample of an excellent journal in molecular biology, the EMBO-Journal, the same phenomenon could be observed: Differences in the average citations per article with regard to cooperations could be explained by selfcitations.
The institution of university science research has evolved over the past century, from one of open science and free information to one of competition and jealously guarded intellectual property rights. This iBrief analyzes the background factors driving the evolution of the institution of science, evaluates the net effects on the progress of science, and considers potential short-term solutions to alleviate the legal transaction costs necessary for scientific collaboration.
The study reports an empirical comparison of quality of collaborative research with the quality of individual research. Quality
of a paper is measured by the citation rate over the four years following the year of publication. Papers published in fourteen
Finance journals between 1987–1991 are sampled. There is no significant difference between the quality of collaborative and
individual research. Decision-makers should hesitate in interpreting collaborative research as a definitive sign of ability
to produce better research.
lnternational collaborative behaviour among scientists is investigated by examining international co-authorship patterns for a number of scientific fields using the 1973 Science Citation Index. Three major findings emerge: (1) the more basic the field, the greater the proportion of international co-authorships; (2) the larger the national scientific enterprise, the smaller the proportion of international co-authorship; (3) international co-authorships occur along clearly discernible geographic lines, suggesting that extra-scientific factors (for example, geography, politics, language) play a strong role in determining who collaborates with whom in the international scientific community.
This article outlines the mechanism by which brokerage provides social capital. Opinion and behavior are more homogeneous within than between groups, so people connected across groups are more familiar with alternative ways of thinking and behaving. Brokerage across the structural holes between groups provides a vision of options otherwise unseen, which is the mechanism by which brokerage becomes social capital. I review evidence consistent with the hypothesis, then look at the networks around managers in a large American electronics company. The organization is rife with structural holes, and brokerage has its expected correlates. Compensation, positive performance evaluations, promotions, and good ideas are disproportionately in the hands of people whose networks span structural holes. The between-group brokers are more likely to express ideas, less likely to have ideas dismissed, and more likely to have ideas evaluated as valuable. I close with implications for creativity and structural change.
This paper examines the relationship between the social capital and knowledge creation in research, mostly in the context of universities. The analysis is developed considering all of the following critical aspects of social capital: direct ties, strengths of direct ties, density, structural holes, centrality, and external-internal index in terms of fields of knowledge. Two important results arise from this research. First, the overall results suggest that, when controlling for other network variables and individual heterogeneity, the effects of the structural holes variable disappear. This result stands in contrast to the established idea that structural holes is the most important variable to represent social capital and, therefore, is seen as contributing to superior performance. Second, the results show that with this strong set of controls, what matters in social capital is having many direct ties, being in a central position, having partners from different areas of knowledge, and being part of a non dense network.
Collaboration practices and partners vary greatly per scientific area and discipline and influence the scientific performance. Bibliometric indicators are used to analyse international, domestic and local collaboration in publications of Spanish authors in three Biomedical subfields: Neurosciences, Gastroenterology and Cardiovascular System as covered by theSCI database. Team size, visibility and basic-applied level of research were analysed according to collaboration scope. International collaboration was linked to higher visibility documents. Cluster analysis of the most productive authors and centres provides a description, of collaboration habits and actors in the three subfields. A positive correlation was found between productivity and international and domestic collaboration at the author level.
This paper examines a number of the criticisms that citation analysis has been subjected to over the years. It is argued that
many of these criticisms have been based on only limited examinations of data in particular contexts and it remains unclear
how broadly applicable these problems are to research conducted at different levels of analysis, in specific field, and among
various national data sets. Relevant evidence is provided from analysis of Australian and international data. Citation analysis
is likely to be most reliable when data is aggregated and at the highly-cited end of the distribution. It is possible to make
valid inferences about individual cases, although considerable caution should be used. Bibliometric measures should be viewed
as a useful supplement to other research evaluation measures rather than as a replacement.
The following kinds of data were collected on three samples of cancer research literature representing three levels of quality: (1) collaboration as measured by the number of authors per paper, (2) quantitative productivity of countries, (3) diachronous citations covering the first five years of publication, (4) total self-citations, (5) proportions of self-citations made by first-named authors, and (6) the extent of dispersion of articles among journals. Analyses showed that as the number of authors per paper increases, the proportion of high quality papers also increases and the Collaborative Index can be used to measure quality in the aggregate. It was found that the quantity and quality of cancer research done in a country are positively related. All analyses of the citation data confirmed the hypotheses that highly rated papers are significantly more highly cited than average papers and the rates of uncitedness decline with quality. The proportion of self-citations to total citations decreases with increasing quality and, on average, first-named authors of quality papers cite them proportionally fewer times than first-named authors of run-of-the mill papers do. This study also shows that, as quality increases, the extent of literature scatter or dispersion increases.
The paper analyses scientific research production at the laboratory level. The evidence on which the study is based describes precisely the research activity over the period 1993–2000 of more than eighty labs belonging to Louis Pasteur University, a large and well-ranked European research university. The research organization of the labs is analysed by focusing on the characteristics of the research personnel in relation with the scores in two outcomes that are publications and patents. The paper proposes a five-classes typology of laboratories that highlights different styles of research organization and productivity at the laboratory level. It also studies the determinants of the publication performances of labs. We show how appropriate combinations of inputs in academic labs may be strongly associated to high publication performances. We find that combining full-time researchers and university professors in labs tend to preserve incentives. Highly publishing labs also patent. The size of the labs, the individual promotions, and the role of non-permanent researchers and of non-researchers are also underlined.
This paper explores recent trends in the size of scientific teams and in institutional collaborations. The data derive from 2.4 million scientific papers written in 110 top U.S. research universities over the period 1981–1999. The top 110 account for a large share of published basic research conducted in the U.S. during this time.We measure team size by the number of authors on a scientific paper. Using this measure we find that team size increases by 50% over the 19-year period. We supplement team size with measures of domestic and foreign institutional collaborations, which capture the geographic dispersion of team workers. The time series evidence suggests that the trend towards more geographically dispersed scientific teams accelerates beginning with papers published at the start of the 1990s. This acceleration suggests a sharp decline in the cost of collaboration. Our hypothesis is that the decline is due to the deployment of the National Science Foundation's NSFNET and its connection to networks in Europe and Japan after 1987.Using a panel of top university departments we also find that private universities and departments whose scientists have earned prestigious awards participate in larger teams, as do departments that have larger amounts of federal funding. Placement of former graduate students is a key determinant of institutional collaborations, especially collaborations with firms and with foreign scientific institutions. Finally, the evidence suggests that scientific output and influence increase with team size and that influence rises along with institutional collaborations. Since increasing team size implies an increase in the division of labor, these results suggest that scientific productivity increases with the scientific division of labor.
The Institute for Scientific Information (ISI) publishes annu- ally listings of impact factors of scientific journals, based upon data extracted from the Science Citation Index (SCI). The impact factor of a journal is defined as the average number of citations given in a specific year to documents published in that journal in the two preceding years, di- vided by the number of "citable" documents published in that journal in those 2 years. This article presents evidence that for a considerable number of journals the values of the impact factors published in ISI's Journal Citation Reports (JCR) are inaccurate, particularly for several journals hav- ing a high impact factor. The inaccuracies are due to an inappropriate definition of citable documents. Document types not defined by ISI as citable (particularly letters and editorials) are actually cited and do contribute to the cita- tion counts of a journal. We present empirical data in order to assess the degree of inaccuracy due to this phenome- non. For several journals the results are striking. We pro- pose to calculate for a journal impact factors per type of document rather than one single impact factor as given currently in the JCR.
Scientific publications are cited to a variable extent. Distributions of article citedness are therefore found to be very skewed even for articles written by the same author, approaching linearity in a semilog plot. It is suggested that this pattern reflects a basic probability distribution with some similarity to the upper part of a normal (Gaussian) distribution. Such a distribution would be expected for various kinds of highly specialized human activity, parallels being found in the distribution of performance by top athletes and in the publication activity of university scientists. A similar skewness in the distribution of mean citedness of different authors may combine with the variability in citedness of each author's articles to form a two-leveled citational hierarchy. Such a model would be capable of accounting for the extremely skewed distribution of citedness observed for all articles within a scientific field, which approaches linearity in a double-log rather than in a semilog plot.
Nanoscience and technology (NST) is a young scientific and technological field that has generated great worldwide interest
in the past two decades. Previous bibliometric analyses have unmistakably demonstrated the remarkable growth of the global
NST literature. While almost all published research articles in NST are in English, increasingly a larger share of NST publications
is published in the Chinese language. Perplexingly, Chinese is the only language — apart from English — that displays an ascendant
trend in the NST literature. In this brief note, we explore and evaluate three arguments that could explain this phenomenon:
coverage bias, language preference, and community formation.
Text mining was used to extract technical intelligence from the open source global nanotechnology and nanoscience research
literature. An extensive nanotechnology/nanoscience-focused query was applied to the Science Citation Index/Social Science
Citation Index (SCI/SSCI) databases. The nanotechnology/nanoscience research literature infrastructure (prolific authors,
key journals/institutions/countries, most cited authors/journals/documents) was obtained using bibliometrics. A novel addition
was the use of institution and country auto-correlation maps to show co-publishing networks among institutions and among countries,
and the use of institution-phrase and country-phrase cross-correlation maps to show institution networks and country networks
based on use of common terminology (proxy for common interests). The use of factor matrices quantified further the strength
of the linkages among institutions and among countries, and validated the co-publishing networks shown graphically on the
maps.
China is becoming a leading nation in terms of its share of the world’s publications in the emerging nanotechnology domain.
This paper demonstrates that the international rise of China’s position in nanotechnology has been underwritten by the emergence
of a series of regional hubs of nanotechnology R&D activity within the country. We develop a unique database of Chinese nanotechnology
articles covering the period 1990 to mid-2006 to identify the regional distribution of nanotechnology research in China. To
build this database, a new approach was developed to clean and standardize the geographical allocation of Chinese publication
records. We then analyze the data to understand the regional development of nanotechnology research in China over our study
period and to map interregional and international research collaboration linkages. We find that the geographical distribution
of China’s domestic nanotechnology research is characterized by regional imbalance, with most of the leading regions located
in eastern China, including not only Beijing and Shanghai but also a series of other new regional hubs. There is much less
development of nanotechnology research in central and western China. Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong are among the leading
Chinese regions for international nanotechnology research collaboration. Other Chinese nanotechnology regions are less focused
on international collaboration, although they have developed domestic interregional collaborations. Although new regional
research hubs have emerged in the nanotechnology domain, the paper notes that their concentration in eastern China reinforces
existing imbalances in science and technology capabilities in China, and in turn this may further reinforce the dominant position
of eastern China in the commercialization of new technologies such as nanotechnology.
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What was the impact of the nanotechnology funding boom of the past ten
years? Philip Shapira and Jue Wang have scrutinized the literature to
find out.
Several research studies and reports on national and European science and technology indicators have recently presented figures reflecting intensifying scientific collaboration and increasing citation impact in practically all science areas and at all levels of aggregation. The main objective of this paper is twofold, namely first to analyse if the number or weight of actors in scientific communication has increased, if patterns of documented scientific communication and collaboration have changed in the last two decades and if these tendencies have inflationary features. The second question is concerned with the role of scientific collaboration in this context. In particular, the question will be answered to what extent co-authorship and publication activity, on one hand, and co-authorship and citation impact, on the other hand, do interact.
This article examines the development of social science literature focused on the emerging area of nanotechnology. It is guided by the exploratory proposition that early social science work on emerging technologies will draw on science and engineering literature on the technology in question to frame its investigative activities, but as the technologies and societal investments in them progress, social scientists will increasingly develop and draw on their own body of literature. To address this proposition the authors create a database of nanotechnology-social science literature by merging articles from the Web of Science's Social Science Citation Index and Arts and Humanities Citation Index with articles from Scopus. The resulting database comprises 308 records. The findings suggest that there are multiple dimensions of cited literature and that social science citations of other social scientists' works have increased since 2005.
Obra donde se analiza cómo el desarrollo tecnológico impulsado por el Silicon Valley atrajo a ingenieros de China, India y Taiwan, y cómo ellos han implantado las técnicas de producción y dirección en sus países, para impulsar el crecimiento de sus empresas y la economía nacional e internacional.
This paper addresses the pattern of knowledge flows as indicated by patent citations between European regions. Our findings support the hypothesis that there are important barriers to knowledge flows in Europe. Patent citations occur more often between regions which belong to the same country and which are in geographical proximity. Furthermore, patent citations are industry specific and occur most often between regions that are specialised in industrial sectors with specific technological linkages between them. Patent citations are also more frequent when the citing region belongs to the same linguistic group as the cited region.
JEL classification: O30; O33; R19
The benefits of study abroad and talents mobility
- X F Chen
Chen, X.F. (2003), "The benefits of study abroad and talents mobility", Shen Zhou Xue Ren, Vol. 7,
pp. 18-19 (Chinese).
Sino-US science collaboration: an analysis in bibliometrics”
- B Jin
- R P Suttmeier
- Z Wang
- C Cao
- D Wang
- Q Zhou
Jin, B., Suttmeier, R.P., Wang, Z., Cao, C., Wang, D. and Zhou, Q. (2007), "Sino-US science
collaboration: an analysis in bibliometrics", Journal of Shanxi University (Nat. Sci. Ed ),
Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 295-302 (Chinese).