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Disciplinary and linguistic considerations for academic Web linking: An exploratory hyperlink mediated study with Mainland China and Taiwan

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  • Mike Thelwall

    (University of Wolverhampton)

  • Rong Tang

    (Catholic University of America)

Abstract

The Web has become an important means of academic information exchange and can be used to give new insights into patterns of informal scholarly communication. This study develops new methods to examine patterns of university Web linking, focusing on Mainland China and Taiwan, and including language considerations. Multiple exploratory investigations into Web links were conducted between universities in these two places. Firstly, inlinks were counted to each university Web site from its national peers using four alternative Web document models. The results were shown to correlate significantly with research productivity in Taiwan but not in the Mainland, although in the latter case less reliable institutional data could have been the cause. For Taiwan, this is the first evidence of a scholarly association with academic linking for a non-English speaking region. It was then ascertained that the same link counts associated more strongly with scientific than social scientific research productivity in Taiwan. This confirms the general assumption of greater Web use by the hard sciences. We then investigated Taiwan-Mainland university cross-links, and found that although English is extensively used on the Web, there was no evidence that it was the language of preference for informal scholarly communication between the two areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Mike Thelwall & Rong Tang, 2003. "Disciplinary and linguistic considerations for academic Web linking: An exploratory hyperlink mediated study with Mainland China and Taiwan," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 58(1), pages 155-181, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:58:y:2003:i:1:d:10.1023_a:1025487826207
    DOI: 10.1023/A:1025487826207
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Mike Thelwall & David Wilkinson, 2003. "Three target document range metrics for university web sites," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 54(6), pages 490-497, April.
    2. Shengli Ren & Ronald Rousseau, 2002. "International visibility of Chinese scientific journals," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 53(3), pages 389-405, March.
    3. Rob Kling & Geoffrey McKim, 2000. "Not just a matter of time: Field differences and the shaping of electronic media in supporting scientific communication," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 51(14), pages 1306-1320.
    4. Th N van Leeuwen & H F Moed & R J W Tijssen & M S Visser & A F J van Raan, 2000. "First evidence of serious language-bias in the use of citation analysis for the evaluation of national science systems," Research Evaluation, Oxford University Press, vol. 9(2), pages 155-156, August.
    5. Camille Prime & Elise Bassecoulard & Michel Zitt, 2002. "Co-citations and co-sitations: A cautionary view on an analogy," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 54(2), pages 291-308, June.
    6. Henk F. Moed, 2002. "Measuring China"s research performance using the Science Citation Index," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 53(3), pages 281-296, March.
    7. Mike Thelwall & Rong Tang & Liz Price, 2003. "Linguistic patterns of academic Web use in Western Europe," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 56(3), pages 417-432, March.
    8. Xuemei Li & Mike Thelwall & Peter Musgrove & David Wilkinson, 2003. "The relationship between the WIFs or inlinks of Computer Science Departments in UK and their RAE ratings or research productivities in 2001," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 57(2), pages 239-255, June.
    9. Mike Thelwall & Gareth Harries, 2003. "The connection between the research of a university and counts of links to its web pages: An investigation based upon a classification of the relationships of pages to the research of the host univers," Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 54(7), pages 594-602, May.
    10. Guo‐Wei Bian & Hsin‐Hsi Chen, 2000. "Cross‐language information access to multilingual collections on the internet," Journal of the American Society for Information Science, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 51(3), pages 281-296.
    11. Mike Thelwall & Alastair Smith, 2002. "Interlinking between Asia-Pacific University Web sites," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 55(3), pages 363-376, November.
    12. Alastair Smith & Mike Thelwall, 2002. "Web Impact Factors for Australasian universities," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 54(3), pages 363-380, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Rong Tang & Mike Thelwall, 2004. "Patterns of national and international Web inlinks to US academic departments: An analysis of disciplinary variations," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 60(3), pages 475-485, August.
    2. Peter B. Musgrove & Ray Binns & Teresa Page-Kennedy & Mike Thelwall, 2003. "A method for identifying clusters in sets of interlinking Web spaces," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 58(3), pages 657-672, November.
    3. Pamela Barreto Lang & Fábio Castro Gouveia & Jacqueline Leta, 2013. "Cooperation in Health: Mapping Collaborative Networks on the Web," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(8), pages 1-7, August.
    4. Han Park & Mike Thelwall, 2008. "Link analysis: Hyperlink patterns and social structure on politicians’ Web sites in South Korea," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 42(5), pages 687-697, October.
    5. Young Mee Chung & So Young Yu & Yong Kwang Kim & Su Yeon Kim, 2009. "Characteristics and link structure of a national scholarly Web space: The case of South Korea," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 80(3), pages 595-612, September.
    6. José-Antonio Ontalba-Ruipérez & Enrique Orduna-Malea & Adolfo Alonso-Arroyo, 2016. "Identifying institutional relationships in a geographically distributed public health system using interlinking and co-authorship methods," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(3), pages 1167-1191, March.
    7. Bar-Ilan, Judit, 2008. "Informetrics at the beginning of the 21st century—A review," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 2(1), pages 1-52.

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