Communication between Chinese and non-Chinese scientists in the discovery of high-Tc superconductor: I. The formal perspective

As the first part of a two-phase study, 240 documents highly cited in a self-created Chinese database and inScience Citation Index for the period of 1987–89 were examined to delineate the formal structure of communication in superconductivity research. Noteworthy similarities, e.g., analogous cited cores, identical publication sources, and comparable intellectual structures of cocitation data, were found in formal communication between Chinese and non-Chinese scientists. However, differences were also located in citedness, timeliness, and direction of communication.