Patterns of scientific collaboration between Japan and France: Inter-sectoral analysis using Probabilistic Partnership Index (PPI)

Summary In this article we present an indicator - Probabilistic Partnership Index (PPI) - for use in measuring scientific linkages. This indicator is based on the Monte-Carlo simulation which provides a standard model to each network established in collaboration between two countries. Any relationship that occurs within a (whole) network can be projected to a standard model respectively and thus PPI is useful in examining individual networks within complex exchanges. We investigate inter-sectoral cooperation between France and Japan for the period of 1981-2004, by classifying every research unit appearing in the data set by its sector. We examine international collaborative patterns, domestic collaborative patterns and multilateral relationships established within the French-Japanese cooperation. We also compare PPI with the classic collaborative linkage indexes - Jaccard Index, Salton-Ochiai Index and Probabilistic Affinity Index - in order to describe the specificity of the new indicator. Our hope is that PPI will prove to be a useful and complementary tool for the analysis of international collaboration.     

Funding acknowledgement analysis: an enhanced tool to investigate research sponsorship impacts: the case of nanotechnology

There is increasing interest in assessing how sponsored research funding influences the development and trajectory of science and technology. Traditionally, linkages between research funding and subsequent results are hard to track, often requiring access to separate funding or performance reports released by researchers or sponsors. Tracing research sponsorship and output linkages is even more challenging when researchers receive multiple funding awards and collaborate with a variety of differentially-sponsored research colleagues. This article presents a novel bibliometric approach to undertaking funding acknowledgement analysis which links research outputs with their funding sources. Using this approach in the context of nanotechnology research, the article probes the funding patterns of leading countries and agencies including patterns of cross-border research sponsorship. We identify more than 91,500 nanotechnology articles published worldwide during a 12-month period in 2008–2009. About 67% of these publications include funding acknowledgements information. We compare articles reporting funding with those that do not (for reasons that may include reliance on internal core-funding rather than external awards as well as omissions in reporting). While we find some country and field differences, we judge that the level of reporting of funding sources is sufficiently high to provide a basis for analysis. The funding acknowledgement data is used to compare nanotechnology funding policies and programs in selected countries and to examine their impacts on scientific output. We also examine the internationalization of research funding through the interplay of various funding sources at national and organizational levels. We find that while most nanotechnology funding is nationally-oriented, internationalization and knowledge exchange does occur as researchers collaborate across borders. Our method offers a new approach not only in identifying the funding sources of publications but also in feasibly undertaking large-scale analyses across scientific fields, institutions and countries.     

Reasons for and developments in international scientific collaboration: does an Asia–Pacific research area exist from a bibliometric point of view?

This paper describes the different forms of and tries to give reasons for international scientific collaboration in general. It focuses on eleven countries in the Asia–Pacific region by evaluating their national research output with the help of bibliometric indicators in particular. Over two million journal articles published by these countries between 1998 and 2007 in ISI-listed periodicals are analyzed. Discipline-specific publication and citation profiles reveal national strengths and weaknesses in the different research domains. The exponential increase in publication output by China over the last few years is astonishing, but in terms of visibility, i.e. citation rates, China cannot keep up with leading science nations, remaining below the world average. A discipline-specific analysis shows that Chinese authors took an active part in more than a quarter of all articles and reviews published in the field of materials science in 2007, while their contribution to medical research is very low. Co-publication networks among the eleven countries are generated to observe the development of cooperation bonds in the region. Applying Salton’s measure of international collaboration strength, an above-average strengthening of scientific collaboration in the Asia–Pacific region can be observed.     

Setting manufacturing strategy for a company's international manufacturing network

Manufacturing strategy is a plan for moving a company from where it is to where it wants to be. Determining the best manufacturing strategy is not easy because of the wide range of choices and constraints a company faces. Manufacturing strategy frameworks or models are helpful because they identify the objects that comprise manufacturing strategy and organise these objects into a structure that enables a company to understand and use the objects to develop strategy. This paper examines a company's international manufacturing network. It identifies and examines six manufacturing strategy objects (generic international strategies, manufacturing networks, network manufacturing outputs, network levers, network capability, and factory types), linkages between objects, and the manufacturing strategy framework that follows from these objects and linkages. Then the paper applies the framework to the manufacturing networks of three companies in the global steel industry: Arcelor (Luxembourg), Mittal (India), and Dofasco (Canada).     

Phases of growth in a green tech research network: a bibliometric evaluation of fuel cell technology from 1991 to 2010

This study uncovers the evolution of a fuel cell research network through a bibliometric study focusing on a period from 1991 to 2010. From a dataset of 37,435 research articles, the study focuses on the evolution of fuel cell research networks at a national level. Focusing solely on the expansion of the research networks, and the policies effecting collaboration, the paper poses three research questions (1) Is research into fuel cells more unconcentrated than in science overall and if so, (2) is there changes within time and (3) can we identify a cluster among certain countries. To answer the research questions, the data was compared to findings on the overall scientific output worldwide. In addition, an ego network analysis was performed and a modularity algorithm was used in order to identify clusters from the network data. The study showed that fuel cell research co-operation has had a distinct evolution within the time frame of the study. Research has increased in both volume and in co-operation, but research co-operation is more unconcentrated than in science overall. Non-TRIAD countries have a stronger role in fuel cell research than in science overall. Clusters in research co-operation have evolved into two modes of co-operation—one around Asia and North America and the second around European co-operation with US and Asia.     

Structure of international collaboration in science: Typology of countries through multivariate techniques using a link indicator

In this article patterns of international collaboration in science are investigated using a specific procedure to analyse data collected from theScience Citation Index. We develop an indicator based on the scientific linkages between countries established through internationally co-authored articles (COPs). The credibility, advantages and uses of this indicator are discussed. We apply the Correspondence Factorial Analysis method and the Minimum Spanning Tree classification to this indicator in order to observe the level of resemblance and the main characteristics of the collaboration structured by 98 countries in eight principal fields of science. The results shown summarize the diverse aspects of countries participating in collaborative works and bring into view the cognitive structure of international research. The use of these methods in the investigation of international collaboration contributes to the analysis of the complex structure of the scientific communities of different countries.     

International collaboration of three ‘giants’ with the G7 countries in emerging nanobiopharmaceuticals

Nanobiopharmaceuticals is a hopeful research domain from recent scientific advances with massive marketable potential. Although some researchers have studied international collaboration from some aspects, few articles are as comprehensive as this article to consider international cooperation from so many different aspects. We lay more emphasis on international collaboration in the field of nanobiopharmaceuticals involving China. Incremental citation impact values show that in order to move forward and improve the overall competitiveness in the field, China requires to carry out more international collaboration in the field, especially with USA, Germany, and England. Startlingly, multinational collaboration does not sway Chinese citation impact as much as we anticipate in the field. China has reached the first rank in the world in terms of publication amount per year in the field in 2009. Few papers about international collaboration compare small world phenomenon. We use small world quotient to find that it is important for Chinese international co-authors to strengthen to cultivate a cooperation networks in which a node’s partners are also buddies to each other.     

Mapping research collaborations in the business and management field in Malaysia, 1980–2010

This paper examines research collaborations in the field of business and management in Malaysia, a fast-developing economy in Southeast Asia. The country aims to become a developed nation by the year 2020, guided by its well-charted Wawasan 2020 or Vision 2020 program. Research and development are important agenda items within this program. Rarely, however, have studies investigated the research collaborations of researchers based in Malaysia from the network perspective. After a manual author disambiguation process, we examined the network of 285 business and management researchers at the individual, institutional, and international levels. Author collaborations per paper almost doubled between 2001 and 2010 compared to the period 1980–1990. The popularity of researchers and the strength and diversity of their ties with other researchers had significant effects on their research performance. Furthermore, geographical proximity still mattered in intra-national collaborations. Malaysian institutions more often collaborated intra-institutionally or with foreign partners than with other institutions within Malaysia. The country’s five research universities are among the top-most productive of all institutions in Malaysia. Malaysia’s top international partners are all developed countries, including the US, Australia, Japan, the UK, and Canada. Surprisingly, Malaysia has had relatively little collaboration with ASEAN nations, of which it is a prominent member and which has an important agenda of educational cooperation within its member states. Internationally co-authored articles have been cited almost three times more than locally co-authored articles. Based on these results, we suggest an effective co-authorship strategy.     

Research collaboration in groups and networks: differences across academic fields

The purpose of this paper is to give a macro-picture of collaboration in research groups and networks across all academic fields in Norwegian research universities, and to examine the relative importance of membership in groups and networks for individual publication output. To our knowledge, this is a new approach, which may provide valuable information on collaborative patterns in a particular national system, but of clear relevance to other national university systems. At the system level, conducting research in groups and networks are equally important, but there are large differences between academic fields. The research group is clearly most important in the field of medicine and health, while undertaking research in an international network is most important in the natural sciences. Membership in a research group and active participation in international networks are likely to enhance publication productivity and the quality of research.     

Strength and weakness of national science systems: A bibliometric analysis through cooperation patterns

In this study we have focused on long term developments of various types of scientific publishing, and the field-normalized impact generated by these various types. The types of scientific output distinguished are output resulting from international cooperation, national cooperation, and single address publications, in which no apparent cooperation is found. A fourth type is distinguished by focusing on first authorship, within the international cooperation output. Changes in especially the share of a country’s output from first-authored international cooperation and the share of single address publications can be regarded as indicators of strength and/or weakness of a science system.     

Engineering research in ocean sector: An international profile

Summary In this paper attempt has been made to study the engineering research scenario in ocean sector across the countries - globally. To understand the research dynamics, the articles appeared in Science Citation Index (SCI) database under Ocean Engineering category in the year 2000 were analyzed to visualize the structure of the field. USA and UK are the major producers - 62% of the total output contributed by them. The cooperation linkages between engineers, organizations, countries and journals were mapped. The causal linkages between the productivity function and the socio-economic imperatives of the production units were studied. 62% output in this sector goes to USA & UK. They are also toppers in collaboration centrality list. National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), USA; National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), USA; National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), India are the most productive institutions. GDP explains only 36% of variance in productivity (R² = 0.36). M Longuethiggins and CC Mei are the most cited authors in the field. Co-citation maps of cited authors and cited journals throw light on the semantic structure of the field. Studies in wave mechanics and modeling of waves are the most important areas of research in Ocean Technology.     

Bibliometric Output from Colombian Researchers with Approved Projects by COLCIENCIAS between 1983 and 1994

We present a characterization of bibliometric output in Colombia resulting from research projects financed by COLCIENCIAS between 1983 and 1994 in the following programs: Health Sciences; Basic Science; Energy and Mining; Agricultural Sciences; Technological, Industrial and Quality Development; Marine Sciences; Social Sciences; Education; Environment and Habitat; Electronics, Telecommunications and Information Systems.In the case of periodicals, we establish: patterns of production by author; patterns of publication in national journals vs. international journals; the effect of international collaboration in projects over publication in international journals; patterns of bibliometric production by fields of research using UNESCO classifications; a list of the most frequently used journals by Colombian researchers as vehicles to communicate their results; patterns of bibliometric production from Colombian institutions; geographical distribution of bibliometric output; and finally, a review on the mean number of authors of articles for some fields of science and technology.We present also theses production patterns for books and B.Sc., MSc. and PhD. theses using UNESCO codes of the projects. We comment on the human resources formation.It is found as a dominant behavior of the so commented patterns a low index of publication per project and a high tendency in the distribution of publications to concentrate on few actors (researchers, institutions, origin of the publication, journals, human resources). It is also found that there exists a strong concentration of bibliometric output in the program of Basic Sciences, in fields such as phytochemistry and solid state physics (super and semiconductors).     

Evolutionary analysis of international collaboration network of Chinese scholars in management research

Taking articles written by mainland China scholars from management related 258 journals indexed by Web of Science database as the data sets, this paper analyses the output of scientific research of Chinese scholars. It studies the structure, characteristics and development trend of collaboration network of Chinese scholars in management research area through scientometrics and social network analysis approaches. We found that the accumulated number of Chinese authors and the accumulated number of articles published by Chinese authors in the 258 journals increases by exponential form, most of which focus on Operations research & Management science. About half of the articles come up through international collaboration and the accumulated number of articles written through collaboration between Chinese and overseas scholars display an exponential increase. The evolution studies of the collaboration network indicate that the collaboration of Chinese scholars in the field of management is on a sharp rise. However, the collaboration network has not yet stepped into a mature and steady stage. Nonetheless, a tendency towards the stable stage is unveiled.     

Multinationality and Performance Literature: A Critical Review and Future Research Agenda

The literature on the relationship between the degree of multinationality (M) and performance (P) in the context of multinational enterprises (MNEs) has attracted a large volume of research in the past 50 years. Yet, the theoretical foundations and the empirical conclusions concerning the nature of M–P relationship vary greatly, thus call for a critical review and assessment. We examine 135 articles in 39 leading scholarly journals and classic books published during the period 1960–2015. We use an inductive approach and a qualitative content analysis methodology for our comprehensive and critical review of the literature. We incorporate international business, finance, and accounting perspectives in our analysis. We review the conceptualization and measurement of M, P, the findings on M–P relationships, methodologies, and geographic focus. We identify six key inconsistencies in the existing research, which cause ambiguity in the relevant findings. We make eight recommendations for future research to address these inconsistencies. Thus, our study contributes to the central debate in this research field.     

Bibliometric study of family business succession between 1939 and 2017: mapping and analyzing authors’ networks

This study maps and analyzes the scientific research networks of family business succession. We examine coauthors’ activities in terms of not only productivity but also their importance to the coauthorship network. The most influential contributors and universities, as well as their research networks and theoretical underpinnings, are discussed. The review examines 661 articles published by 1105 authors in 224 academic journals indexed in the Social Science Citation Index and Scopus between 1939 and 2017. We used a bibliometric approach based on coauthorship analysis to measure cooperation. The results show that family business succession research is characterized by high fragmentation in the authors’ collaboration in general, but the leading scholars are strongly interconnected. We map and analyze the most influential networks by identifying the most important topics studied, the theoretical and methodological approaches employed, the scope of the research conducted, and where it has been published. Most of the identified networks are in North America and Europe, and most are not theoretically or methodologically specialized.     

The resilience of regional African HIV/AIDS research networks to the withdrawal of international authors in the subfield of public administration and governance: lessons for funders and collaborators

This paper compares the position and performance of Africans in international research networks, comparing a well-funded and internationally driven research network against a network developing organically with less funding and oversight. Specifically, we map the co-authorship networks related to African governance and public policy (1) in general and (2) related to HIV/AIDS. In both research networks Africans are well positioned globally, but African authors have lower connectivity and status in the HIV/AIDS network than the general network. Links between authors in different African countries are often bridged by non-Africans. This makes the African research networks vulnerable to shifting funding priorities; and international dropout would fragment the HIV/AIDS network more than the general network. We conclude that funders and researchers should prioritize direct inter-country African collaborations to improve the resilience of African research networks.     

Chinese researchers returning home: Impacts of international mobility on research collaboration and scientific productivity

The aim of this study is to contribute to the debate on the relationship between scientific mobility and international collaboration. This case study deals with leading Chinese researchers in the field of plant molecular life sciences who returned to their home country. A correlation analysis of their mobility history, publication output, and international co-publication data, shows the relationship between scientific output, levels of international collaboration and various individual characteristics of returned researchers. The outcome of the analysis suggests that while host countries may loose human capital when Chinese scientists return home, the so-called “return brain drain”, they may also gain in terms of scientific linkages within this rapidly emerging and globalizing research field.     

Analysis of publications on sturgeon research between 1996 and 2010

Sturgeon species are among the commercially most valuable and the most endangered groups of fish. To assess the existing literature published within the field of sturgeon research over the past 15 years (1996–2010) we applied a bibliometric approach, in order to identify patterns and trends of the published research in this field. The analysis was performed based upon articles obtained from the ISI Web of Knowledge online database. The results revealed that although all 27 sturgeon species have been objects of the research, species that are endangered or facing a high probability of extinction have received disproportionately less attention. White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus) was the most frequently studied species, but it was recently surpassed by Persian sturgeon (A. persicus). Early life phases have been among the central objects of the research, and genetics, especially the use of microsatellite DNA, is becoming increasingly popular and had the highest impact. Research related to aquaculture was prominent, while the research related to hybrids (as a commodity of aquaculture production) was decreasing in popularity. Papers dealing with conservation issues were most frequently focused on European sturgeon (A. sturio). A steady increase in the number of published articles over time was observed. However, the overall citation rate declined significantly over time. During the period reviewed, the sturgeon research published in peer reviewed journals dominantly originated from the USA and EU. Nevertheless, considering the current trend in output, it is very likely that the Asian countries, mainly Iran and China, will surpass them within the next 5–10 years. International and inter-institutional collaboration both tended to increase the impact of the research. Stimulation and improvement of the international cooperation should be considered as future priorities.     

Cooperation patterns in science within Europe: the standpoint of small countries

This article is concerned with the cooperation patterns of science among European countries from the viewpoint of small countries. This is an issue, which empirical literature so far has overlooked, but which is still relevant for understanding the implications of integration processes in EU. We have replicated and expanded in sample, indicator and time dimensions the empirical analysis suggested by Frenken (Economic Systems Research 14(4):345–361, 2002) for assessing the homogeneity of cooperation patterns among European countries. We find that small states are less homogenously collaborating with all countries in the European research system and their intra-national research cooperation is also more fragmented. Our analysis reveals the outcomes of cooperation processes, and also highlights the factors such as research funding and research specialisation that can impact the results of the connectivity measurement. We also show that the results are sensitive to the size and measurement of the science system.     

Quantitative analysis of collaborative and mobility networks

This study proposes a quantitative analysis of researcher mobility (i.e. transfer from one institution to another) and collaborative networks on the basis of author background data extracted from biographical notes in scientific articles to identify connections that are not revealed via simple co-authorship analysis. Using a top-ranked journal in the field of computer vision, we create a layered network that describes various aspects of author backgrounds, demonstrating a geographical distribution of institutions. We classify networks according to various dimensions including authors, institutions and countries. The results of the quantitative analysis indicate that mobility networks extend beyond the typical collaborative networks describing institutional and international relationships. We also discuss sectoral collaboration considering the mobility networks. Our findings indicate a limitation of collaborative analysis based on bibliometric data and the importance of tracing researcher mobility within potential networks to identify the true nature of scientific collaboration.