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Chinese Universities’ Cross-Border Research Collaboration in the Social Sciences and Its Impact

Author

Listed:
  • Yang Liu

    (Institute of Higher Education, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

  • Jinyuan Ma

    (Center for Higher Education Research, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China)

  • Huanyu Song

    (Institute of Higher Education, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

  • Ziniu Qian

    (Institute of Higher Education, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Beihang University, Beijing 100191, China)

  • Xiao Lin

    (Reed Elsevier Information Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., Beijing 100738, China)

Abstract

This paper examined the coauthorship patterns in Chinese researchers’ cross-border research collaboration in the social sciences based on articles and reviews indexed in the Scopus database (2010–2019). We explored the evolution of coauthorship patterns by proportion of collaboration, year, research field, country/region, and research institution; additionally, the quality/impact of the coauthored publications was examined using four levels of paper quality (Q1–4), citations per paper, and FWCI. We found that collaboration between Chinese and international scholars is very common, and more than 40% of all papers published by Chinese scholars from 2010 to 2019 involved cross-border collaboration. The growth in collaboration was very steady over the past 10 years, increasing by an average of 20% per year. United States scholars are the most common research collaboration partners for Chinese scholars in the social sciences, followed by those in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada. The field of psychology seeks the most collaboration, followed by economics and finance, business and management, and social issues. The percentage of Q1 papers increased from 36% in 2010 to 66% in 2019. Thus, in the past 10 years, Chinese scholars’ cross-border collaboration has grown extensively in terms of both quantity and impact.

Suggested Citation

  • Yang Liu & Jinyuan Ma & Huanyu Song & Ziniu Qian & Xiao Lin, 2021. "Chinese Universities’ Cross-Border Research Collaboration in the Social Sciences and Its Impact," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(18), pages 1-19, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10378-:d:637442
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