Internationality in Finnish research: an examination of collaborators, citers, tweeters, and readers

• Published in: Information research Vol. 22; no. 1; p. 1
• Main Authors: Didegah, Fereshteh, Gazni, Ali, Bowman, Timothy D, Holmberg, Kim
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Borås University of Borås 01.03.2017
• Subjects: Academic publications; Citation analysis; Collaboration; Social networks; Finland
• ISSN: 1368-1613; 1368-1613

Introduction. Internationalisation in science is recognized as an important factor towards academic quality and economic growth. This study examines the internationality rate of Finnish research publications in terms of tweeters, Mendeley readers, collaborators and citers. Method. The publication and citation data were retrieved from Web of Science. Tweeter information was retrieved through Twitter API and readers information was obtained from Mendeley API. Research internationality was measured by examining the geographic dispersion of authors, citers, tweeters, and Mendeley readers of research articles using Euclidean distance. Results. The findings demonstrate that the internationality rate of Finnish research in terms of its citers is significantly higher than that of its Mendeley readers, tweeters, and collaborators. Internationality rates vary across disciplines and that rates are higher for Medical and Health Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Engineering and Technology than Humanities and Social Sciences. International research collaboration is found to be an important factor for higher rates of international visibility, and that particularly more collaborative subject domains (i.e. Medical and Physical Sciences) have a higher rate of internationality of authors and audiences. International staff engagement in the research conducted at Finnish universities is also an important factor and significantly associates with the internationality of Finnish research collaborators and audiences. Conclusions. The findings will be informative for research policy makers and administrators engaging in research evaluation at Finnish institutions to develop international networks to enhance internationality of their research.