Network structure, distribution and the growth of Chinese international research collaboration

• Published in: Scientometrics Vol. 98; no. 2; pp. 1221 - 1233
• Main Authors: Niu, Fenggao, Qiu, Junping
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.02.2014; Springer
• Subjects: Bibliometrics; Bibliometrics. Scientometrics; Bibliometrics. Scientometrics. Evaluation; Citation analysis; Co authorship; Computer Science; Exact sciences and technology; Information and communication sciences; Information science. Documentation; Information Storage and Retrieval; Library and information science. General aspects; Library Science; Sciences and techniques of general use; Social networks; Field; Country; International research collaboration (IRC); Journal; China; Collaboration network; Research field; Growth; Periodical; Bibliometric analysis; International cooperation; Bibliometrics; Scientific research; Scientific cooperation
• ISSN: 0138-9130; 1588-2861
• DOI: 10.1007/s11192-013-1170-x

The paper studied 211,946 articles indexed in Thomson Reuters’s Web of Science from January 1st 2002 to December 31st 2011, in order to describe the growth and distribution of Chinese international research collaboration (IRC), from the perspective of amount, authors, countries, discipline fields and journals. By applying bibliometric and social network methods, this study provided the collaboration network of countries and fields. The main results were as follow: the number of article increased faster comparing with the stable growth in average annual of IRC degree; the articles collaborated with SAC are 80 % more than all IRC’s; as to the fields, collaboration in Social science is at disadvantage, while the largest field is physics and the fastest field is molecular biology and genetics; mathematics, physics, multidisciplinary and space science had more in fluencies than others in corresponding respective journals; as to the network, USA, as the largest and most important partner, had 30 % IRC articles, and collaborated with China in all 22 ESI fields.