IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v11y2021i4p21582440211050381.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Analysis of Influence Factors on the Quality of International Collaboration Research in the Field of Social Sciences and Humanities: The Case of Chinese World Class Universities (2015–2019)

Author

Listed:
  • Cheng Zhe
  • Xingfu Lu
  • Xiong Xiong

Abstract

This article aims to reveal the factors that affecting the impact of international collaboration papers in the field of social sciences and humanities. Based on resource-based theory and transaction cost theory, we analyzed the articles from a sample of 13,331 listed research papers come from the 42 world class universities in China using descriptive statistics, ordinary least square (OLS) regression, and came to the following conclusions: First, it is the quality rather than the quantity of international collaborator that affect the academic influence of the research outputs. Second, researchers from different backgrounds are conducive to improve the impact of research papers and the collaboration leading by Chinese university perform better. Yet, too much collaborators coming from different institutions would have an adverse impact, which may due to the increase cost of cooperation. Finally, collaborating researchers from developed countries or top universities will significantly improve the research performance because of the abundant resources behind them. Findings from this research suggest that setting up international collaboration should pay more attention to the level of the collaborator and consider the cost behind the whole process.

Suggested Citation

  • Cheng Zhe & Xingfu Lu & Xiong Xiong, 2021. "Analysis of Influence Factors on the Quality of International Collaboration Research in the Field of Social Sciences and Humanities: The Case of Chinese World Class Universities (2015–2019)," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:21582440211050381
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440211050381
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440211050381
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440211050381?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ali Gazni & Fereshteh Didegah, 2011. "Investigating different types of research collaboration and citation impact: a case study of Harvard University’s publications," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 87(2), pages 251-265, May.
    2. Loet Leydesdorff & Lutz Bornmann & Caroline S. Wagner, 2019. "The Relative Influences of Government Funding and International Collaboration on Citation Impact," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 70(2), pages 198-201, February.
    3. Christophe Van den Bulte & Rudy K. Moenaert, 1998. "The Effects of R&D Team Co-location on Communication Patterns among R&D, Marketing, and Manufacturing," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 44(11-Part-2), pages 1-18, November.
    4. Cui Zhang & Jing Guo, 2017. "China’s international research collaboration: evidence from a panel gravity model," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(2), pages 1129-1139, November.
    5. Vicente P. Guerrero Bote & Carlos Olmeda‐Gómez & Félix de Moya‐Anegón, 2013. "Quantifying the benefits of international scientific collaboration," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(2), pages 392-404, February.
    6. Hanna-Mari Puuska & Reetta Muhonen & Yrjö Leino, 2014. "International and domestic co-publishing and their citation impact in different disciplines," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 98(2), pages 823-839, February.
    7. Hoekman, Jarno & Frenken, Koen & Tijssen, Robert J.W., 2010. "Research collaboration at a distance: Changing spatial patterns of scientific collaboration within Europe," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(5), pages 662-673, June.
    8. Nicolas Carayol & Mireille Matt, 2004. "The exploitation of complementarities in scientific production process at the laboratory level," Post-Print hal-00278688, HAL.
    9. Tuan V. Nguyen & Thao P. Ho-Le & Ut V. Le, 2017. "International collaboration in scientific research in Vietnam: an analysis of patterns and impact," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 110(2), pages 1035-1051, February.
    10. Seongkyoon Jeong & Jae Young Choi & Jang-Yun Kim, 2014. "On the drivers of international collaboration: The impact of informal communication, motivation, and research resources," Science and Public Policy, Oxford University Press, vol. 41(4), pages 520-531.
    11. Vicente P. Guerrero Bote & Carlos Olmeda-Gómez & Félix Moya-Anegón, 2013. "Quantifying the benefits of international scientific collaboration," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 64(2), pages 392-404, February.
    12. Bárbara S. Lancho-Barrantes & Vicente P. Guerrero-Bote & Félix Moya-Anegón, 2013. "Citation increments between collaborating countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 94(3), pages 817-831, March.
    13. Birger Wernerfelt, 1984. "A resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180, April.
    14. Pamela J. Hinds & Mark Mortensen, 2005. "Understanding Conflict in Geographically Distributed Teams: The Moderating Effects of Shared Identity, Shared Context, and Spontaneous Communication," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(3), pages 290-307, June.
    15. Marek Kwiek, 2020. "Internationalists and locals: international research collaboration in a resource-poor system," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(1), pages 57-105, July.
    16. Pardeep Sud & Mike Thelwall, 2016. "Not all international collaboration is beneficial: The Mendeley readership and citation impact of biochemical research collaboration," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(8), pages 1849-1857, August.
    17. Seongkyoon Jeong & Jae Young Choi & Jaeyun Kim, 2011. "The determinants of research collaboration modes: exploring the effects of research and researcher characteristics on co-authorship," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 89(3), pages 967-983, December.
    18. Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Cassidy R Sugimoto & Vincent Larivière, 2019. "Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, June.
    19. María Bordons & Borja González-Albo & Javier Aparicio & Luz Moreno, 2015. "The influence of R&D intensity of countries on the impact of international collaborative research: evidence from Spain," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 102(2), pages 1385-1400, February.
    20. Wolfgang Glänzel & András Schubert, 2001. "Double effort = Double impact? A critical view at international co-authorship in chemistry," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 50(2), pages 199-214, February.
    21. Wagner, Caroline S. & Whetsell, Travis A. & Mukherjee, Satyam, 2019. "International research collaboration: Novelty, conventionality, and atypicality in knowledge recombination," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(5), pages 1260-1270.
    22. Han-Wen Chang & Mu-Hsuan Huang, 2016. "The effects of research resources on international collaboration in the astronomy community," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(10), pages 2489-2510, October.
    23. Eungi Kim & Eun Sil Kim, 2020. "A critical examination of international research conducted by North Korean authors: Increasing trends of collaborative research between China and North Korea," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 124(1), pages 429-450, July.
    24. Dovev Lavie & Israel Drori, 2012. "Collaborating for Knowledge Creation and Application: The Case of Nanotechnology Research Programs," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(3), pages 704-724, June.
    25. Pamela J. Hinds & Diane E. Bailey, 2003. "Out of Sight, Out of Sync: Understanding Conflict in Distributed Teams," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 14(6), pages 615-632, December.
    26. Wolfgang Glänzel & Cornelius de Lange, 2002. "A distributional approach to multinationality measures of international scientific collaboration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 54(1), pages 75-89, April.
    27. Giovanni Abramo & Ciriaco Andrea D’Angelo & Marco Solazzi, 2011. "The relationship between scientists’ research performance and the degree of internationalization of their research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 86(3), pages 629-643, March.
    28. Oliver E. Williamson & Scott E. Masten (ed.), 1995. "Transaction Cost Economics," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, volume 0, number 594.
    29. Jane Payumo & Taurean Sutton & Derek Brown & Dan Nordquist & Marc Evans & Danna Moore & Prema Arasu, 2017. "Input–output analysis of international research collaborations: a case study of five U.S. universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 111(3), pages 1657-1671, June.
    30. David Hsiehchen & Magdalena Espinoza & Antony Hsieh, 2018. "Evolution of collaboration and optimization of impact: self-organization in multinational research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 117(1), pages 391-407, October.
    31. Svein Kyvik & Ingvild Reymert, 2017. "Research collaboration in groups and networks: differences across academic fields," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 113(2), pages 951-967, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Yinqi Ma & Qi Xiu & Lingzhi Shao & Hao Yao, 2022. "Promoting the Sustainable Improvement of Educational Empirical Research Quality: What Kinds of Collaborative Production Relationships Make Sense?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(6), pages 1-23, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhe Cheng & Xingfu Lu & Xiong Xiong & Chuanyi Wang, 2021. "What Can Influence the Quality of International Collaborative Publications: A Case Study of Humanities and Social Sciences International Collaboration in China’s Double First-Class Project Universitie," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-13, March.
    2. Chaocheng He & Jiang Wu & Qingpeng Zhang, 2021. "Characterizing research leadership on geographically weighted collaboration network," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(5), pages 4005-4037, May.
    3. Jyoti Dua & Hiran H. Lathabai & Vivek Kumar Singh, 2023. "Measuring and characterizing research collaboration in SAARC countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(2), pages 1265-1294, February.
    4. Vieira, Elizabeth S. & Cerdeira, Jorge & Teixeira, Aurora A.C., 2022. "Which distance dimensions matter in international research collaboration? A cross-country analysis by scientific domain," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    5. Jyoti Dua & Vivek Kumar Singh & Hiran H. Lathabai, 2023. "Measuring and characterizing international collaboration patterns in Indian scientific research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(9), pages 5081-5116, September.
    6. Ping Ni & Xinying An, 2018. "Relationship between international collaboration papers and their citations from an economic perspective," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 116(2), pages 863-877, August.
    7. Dongqing Lyu & Kaile Gong & Xuanmin Ruan & Ying Cheng & Jiang Li, 2021. "Does research collaboration influence the “disruption” of articles? Evidence from neurosciences," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 287-303, January.
    8. Chen, Kaihua & Zhang, Yi & Fu, Xiaolan, 2019. "International research collaboration: An emerging domain of innovation studies?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 149-168.
    9. Quan-Hoang Vuong & Tung Manh Ho & Thu-Trang Vuong & Ha Viet Nguyen & Nancy K. Napier & Hiep-Hung Pham, 2017. "Nemo Solus Satis Sapit : Trends of Research Collaborations in the Vietnamese Social Sciences, Observing 2008–2017 Scopus Data," Publications, MDPI, vol. 5(4), pages 1-15, October.
    10. Ping Zhou & Xiaojing Cai & Xiaozan Lyu, 2020. "An in-depth analysis of government funding and international collaboration in scientific research," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1331-1347, November.
    11. Elizabeth S. Vieira, 2023. "The influence of research collaboration on citation impact: the countries in the European Innovation Scoreboard," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(6), pages 3555-3579, June.
    12. Yue Wang & Ning Li & Bin Zhang & Qian Huang & Jian Wu & Yang Wang, 2023. "The effect of structural holes on producing novel and disruptive research in physics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1801-1823, March.
    13. Lipeng Fan & Yuefen Wang & Shengchun Ding & Binbin Qi, 2020. "Productivity trends and citation impact of different institutional collaboration patterns at the research units’ level," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 125(2), pages 1179-1196, November.
    14. Jonathan M. Levitt & Mike Thelwall, 2016. "Long term productivity and collaboration in information science," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 108(3), pages 1103-1117, September.
    15. de Frutos-Belizón, Jesús & García-Carbonell, Natalia & Ruíz-Martínez, Marta & Sánchez-Gardey, Gonzalo, 2023. "Disentangling international research collaboration in the Spanish academic context: Is there a desirable researcher human capital profile?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    16. Elizabeth S. Vieira, 2022. "International research collaboration in Africa: a bibliometric and thematic analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(5), pages 2747-2772, May.
    17. Cesar H. Limaymanta & Rosalía Quiroz-de-García & Jesús A. Rivas-Villena & Andrea Rojas-Arroyo & Orlando Gregorio-Chaviano, 2022. "Relationship between collaboration and normalized scientific impact in South American public universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6391-6411, November.
    18. Hongquan Shen & Juan Xie & Jiang Li & Ying Cheng, 2021. "The correlation between scientific collaboration and citation count at the paper level: a meta-analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(4), pages 3443-3470, April.
    19. Marian-Gabriel Hâncean & Matjaž Perc & Jürgen Lerner, 2021. "The coauthorship networks of the most productive European researchers," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(1), pages 201-224, January.
    20. Daniel Tzabbar & Alex Vestal, 2015. "Bridging the Social Chasm in Geographically Distributed R&D Teams: The Moderating Effects of Relational Strength and Status Asymmetry on the Novelty of Team Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 26(3), pages 811-829, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:11:y:2021:i:4:p:21582440211050381. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.