IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/scient/v66y2006i2d10.1007_s11192-006-0023-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Structural similarities between science growth dynamics in China and in western countries

Author

Listed:
  • Liming Liang

    (Institute for Science, Technology and Society, Henan Normal University)

  • Frank Havemann

    (Institute of Library Science, Humboldt-University Berlin)

  • Michael Heinz

    (Institute of Library Science, Humboldt-University Berlin)

  • Roland Wagner-Döbler

    (Institute of Philosophy, University of Augsburg)

Abstract

Summary To compare science growth of different countries is both, of theoretical and of pragmatic interest. Using methods for the analysis of complex growth processes introduced by H. E. Stanley and others, we exhibit quantitative features of Chinese science growth from 1986 to 1999 and compare them with corresponding features of western countries. Patterns of growth dynamics of Chinese universities publication output do not differ significantly from those found in the case of western countries. The same is valid for Chinese journals when compared to international journals. In nearly all cases the size distribution of output over universities or journals is near to a lognormal one, the growth rate distribution is Laplace-like, and the standard deviations of the corresponding conditional distributions with regard to size decay according to a power law. This means that regarding some structural-dynamical properties China's recent science system cannot be distinguished from a western one - despite different prehistory and different political and economic environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Liming Liang & Frank Havemann & Michael Heinz & Roland Wagner-Döbler, 2006. "Structural similarities between science growth dynamics in China and in western countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 66(2), pages 311-325, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:66:y:2006:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-006-0023-2
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-006-0023-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11192-006-0023-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s11192-006-0023-2?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
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Wolfgang Glänzel & Koenraad Debackere & Martin Meyer, 2008. "‘Triad’ or ‘tetrad’? On global changes in a dynamic world," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 74(1), pages 71-88, January.
    2. Qiuju Zhou & Ronald Rousseau & Liying Yang & Ting Yue & Guoliang Yang, 2012. "A general framework for describing diversity within systems and similarity between systems with applications in informetrics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(3), pages 787-812, December.
    3. S. L. Sangam & Uma B. Arali & C. G. Patil & Ronald Rousseau, 2018. "Growth of the hepatitis literature over the period 1976–2015: What can the relative priority index teach us?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 115(1), pages 351-368, April.
    4. Li Ying Yang & Ting Yue & Jie Lan Ding & Tao Han, 2012. "A comparison of disciplinary structure in science between the G7 and the BRIC countries by bibliometric methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 93(2), pages 497-516, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:scient:v:66:y:2006:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-006-0023-2. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    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.