Explore the vast range of titles available.

Co-authored research articles in the disciplinarily heterogeneous field of higher education have dramatically increased in this century. As in other fields, rising international co-authorships reflect evolving international collaboration networks. We examine higher education research over two decades, applying automated bibliometric topic identification and social network analysis of 9067 papers in 13 core higher education journals (1998–2018). Remarkable expansion in the volume of papers and co-authorships has, surprisingly, not resulted in a more diverse network. Rather, existing co-authorship patterns are strengthened, with the dominance of scholars from a few Anglophone countries largely maintained. Researchers globally seek to co-author with leading scholars in these countries, especially the US, UK, and Australia—at least when publishing in the leading general higher education journals based there. Further, the two-mode social network analysis of countries and topics suggests that while Anglophone countries have led the development of higher education research, China and Germany, as leading research-producing countries, are increasingly influential within this world-spanning network. Topically, the vast majority of co-authored papers in higher education research focuses on individual-level phenomena, with organizational and system or country-level analysis constituting (much) smaller proportions, despite policymakers’ emphasis on cross-national comparisons and the growing importance of university actorhood. We discuss implications thereof for the future of the multidisciplinary field of higher education.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide theoretical basis and data support for researchers to choose appropriate international partners, provide a basis for Chinese research funding agencies, such as National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) to formulate international research collaboration (IRC) strategies and policies and provide recommendations for the improvement of the internationalization level of China's basic scientific research.Design/methodology/approachBased on existing research, this study took output of “Major International (Regional) Joint Research Project” (MIJRP) funded by NSFC and participated by Chinese scholars in the meantime as the analysis object, proposed hypotheses and constructed the indicators of IRC and research output (RO). In addition, the mathematical statistics was used to compare the RO of China's IRC and nonIRC, and the statistical analysis model was used to measure the influence on RO of collaboration country's research capacity, research collaboration between China and US, scope of international research collaboration and reprint author country.FindingsThe RO of China's IRC is higher than that of nonIRC; research capacity of collaboration country has no inevitable effect on the RO of China's IRC; the RO of China's IRC participated by Americans is higher than that without American scholars; expanding the scope of China's IRC to some degree can increase RO; the RO of China's IRC led by foreigners is higher than that led by Chinese. In particular, China–US IRC and foreign scholars acting as the reprint author are two major factors for the RO of China's IRC.Originality/valueMost of the traditional research on IRC are based on the co-author papers, and this study tried to analyze the characteristics and regularities on IRC from a new view of international collaboration projects, which can be a supplement to the traditional international collaboration research on co-author papers.

Scientific collaboration at international level has increased manifolds during last two decades. Collaboration is not only associated with higher research productivity but has also been found to be positively correlated with impact. Considering the benefits and advantages of international collaboration for the national science and technology systems of a country, policymakers in different countries have designed programs to promote international collaboration in science. This paper attempts to measure and characterize the international collaboration patterns in Indian scientific research for the last 20 years (2001–2020) using data from WoS. The existing methods from scientometrics and a new formalism of boost in productivity, citations and visibility, is used for the purpose. Analytical results show that India’s international collaboration has grown with a CAGR of 12.27% during this period, rising from 20.73% internationally collaborated papers in 2001 to 32.35% internationally collaborated papers in 2020. USA, Germany, England, and China remain the top collaborating partners in terms of volume of papers, however, the relative intensity of collaboration with South Korea and Saudi Arabia has increased significantly. Among the internationally collaborated papers of India, about 50% papers have an Indian researcher as lead (first) author, and further the internationally collaborated papers of India have more than 50% authors from India. The Indian indigenous scholarly ecosystem is found to be significantly productive, but slight and heavy dependence for impact and visibility, respectively, is found on international collaborations. The probable factors shaping the Indian international collaboration and the major policy implications for India are discussed.

Eco-innovations integrate complex and diverse knowledge sources. For this reason, firms engage in worldwide collaborations that promote learning from different partners that, in turn, promote environmental innovations. This study analyzes how the learning experience of previous collaborations at the national and international levels impacts the likelihood of eco-innovation development by small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). This work also examines whether such linkages between prior collaboration experience and eco-innovation are influenced by alliance portfolio diversity (APD), which can broaden the number of knowledge sources but also increase coordination costs. The results of longitudinal analysis, based on a dataset of Spanish SMEs, suggest that the learning acquired from prior domestic openness is more useful for enhancing eco-innovation activities. Moreover, the results confirm the negative moderating role of APD, as SMEs with greater prior experience in national and international openness are more likely to eco-innovate than those with less prior experience, but these relationships weaken with increased diversity in collaboration portfolios. Plain English Summary “Collaborate, but not for too long and with diverse partners at the same time!” The prior experience of SMEs in collaborations, especially national ones, helps them generate more eco-innovations. However, these effects weaken when partner diversity increases. This paper analyzes how SMEs learn from prior collaborations with national and international partners to promote eco-innovation by addressing the inherent benefits and challenges associated with the duration and continuity of such collaboration, as well as the diversity of partnership choices. SMEs, which are typically constrained by resources, engage in collaboration to learn how to develop complex eco-innovations, facing a trade-off between the length of the collaboration and the diversity of the partners with which they can cooperate. The main implication of our study is that SMEs’ learning from prior national collaborations is more valuable for enhancing eco-innovation than their international experience. This finding can be explained by the fact that geographical proximity optimizes knowledge transfer and smooths coordination problems due to physical and cognitive proximity, thus helping SMEs augment social value through enhanced eco-innovation. Furthermore, SMEs need to consider that having an alliance portfolio that is too diverse, with partners of different types and from different locations, reduces the positive effects of learning from prior alliances and environmental innovation.

Scientific activity has become increasingly complex in recent years. The need for international research collaboration has thus become a common pattern in science. In this current landscape, countries face the problem of maintaining their competitiveness while cooperating with other countries to achieve relevant research outputs. In this international context, publications from international collaborations tend to achieve greater scientific impact than those from domestic ones. To design policies that improve the competitiveness of countries and organizations, it thus becomes necessary to understand the factors and mechanisms that influence the benefits and impact of international research. In this regard, the aim of this study is to confirm whether the differences in impact between international and domestic collaborations are affected by their topics and structure. To perform this study, we examined the Library and Information Science category of the Web of Science database between 2015 and 2019. A science mapping analysis approach was used to extract the themes and their structure according to collaboration type and in the whole category (2015–2019). We also looked for differences in these thematic aspects in top countries and in communities of collaborating countries. The results showed that the thematic factor influences the impact of international research, as the themes in this type of collaboration lie at the forefront of the Library and Information Science category (e.g., technologies such as artificial intelligence and social media are found in the category), while domestic collaborations have focused on more well-consolidated themes (e.g., academic libraries and bibliometrics). Organizations, countries, and communities of countries must therefore consider this thematic factor when designing strategies to improve their competitiveness and collaborate.

Until recently, modern science had been dominated by a handful of Western countries. However, since the turn of the millennium, the global science landscape has undergone dramatic changes. The number of nations where a significant proportion of research done is of high international standard has now increased considerably. China particularly stands out and is today one of the leading science nations in the world. Overall, Chinese research collaborations with countries in the Western world exemplify the general trend towards increasing complexity in the global research landscape. It has gradually become obvious that differences between institutional settings need to be managed more systematically to promote cross-border research cooperation for shared benefits, from individual to institutional levels. An informed discussion of managing complex conditions necessitates an understanding of the relationship-level dynamics of research collaborations. In order to identify what aspects of international research collaborations are the most pertinent to systematically manage at individual and institutional levels, this paper investigates projects in a bilateral Swedish-Chinese funding program. The paper finds that the majority of collaborations funded had yielded positive impact in terms of publications, strengthened research capacity in research groups, and resource accumulation. The challenges found in the collaborations are related to needs such as improving transparency, ethical concerns, and imbalances in reciprocity. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).

This paper addresses gender differences in international research collaboration measured through international co-authorship. The study is based on a dataset consisting of 5600 Norwegian researchers and their publication output during a 3-year period (44,000 publications). Two different indicators are calculated. First, the share of researchers that have been involved in international collaboration as measured by co-authorship, and second, the share of their publications with international co-authorship. The study shows that the field of research is by far the most important factor influencing the propensity to collaborate internationally. There are large differences from humanities on the one hand, where international collaboration in terms of co-authorship is less common, to the natural sciences on the other, where such collaboration is very frequent. On an overall level, we find distinct gender differences in international research collaboration in Norway in the favour of men. However, men and women are not equally distributed across fields and there are relatively more female researchers in fields where the international collaboration rates generally are lower. When the data are analysed by scientific field, academic position, and publication productivity of the researchers, the gender differences in the propensity to collaborate with colleagues in other countries are minor only, and not statistically significant. Concerning gender inequality in science, the main challenge seems to be the lower productivity level of female researchers, which obviously hinders their academic career development. Differences in international collaboration are unlikely to be an important factor in this respect, at least not in the Norwegian research context analysed in this study.

International research collaboration (IRC) has been relevant for the development of national scientific systems. In Africa, given the limited resources devoted to research and development (R&D) activities and the crucial role that scientific knowledge generated through research activities can have in socioeconomic development, IRC may be an opportunity to strengthen scientific capabilities. While geographical, economic, political/governance, cultural, intellectual and excellence distance hampers IRC in other regions, we argue that economic and excellence distances actuate differently in Africa. We explored the impact of the variables above in addition to the information and communication technologies (ICTs), and social distances on the IRC of these countries. Using panel data for 54 African economies, our results show that economic distance fosters IRC while governance and excellence distances are non-significant. Past collaborations (one out of two proxies for social distance) and speaking the same language have the highest effect on IRC, and ICTs distance the lowest. The results have implications for science policy in Africa. For instance, we argue that science policies need to be adapted to each environment as the scientific landscape in each country is unique.

The problem of inadequate research funding in Africa is complex, stemming from various historical, economic, political, and structural obstacles. Collaboration in data sharing coulomololud encourage and support African researchers in undertaking research projects with limited resources. The challenge with this idea is that most prominent research and available data are behind paywalls established by publishing companies. To address this issue, which is also a global concern, there have been calls for an open science approach, intended to help scholars and researchers, to some extent, overcome the financial constraints associated with research. Using qualitative desktop methods, this paper explores the potential of the open access approach to help African researchers’ enhanced accessibility and foster international collaborations, positively contributing to knowledge construction and legitimation in Africa. It is argued that everyone has a stake in science, and therefore, researchers and scholars worldwide should have the opportunity to participate as consumers, evaluators, or producers of research and knowledge. Consequently, all stakeholders need to embrace the open science approach, which is seen as a powerful force for positive change in academia, science, and education—making knowledge accessible to all and fostering a more inclusive and equitable world. It is also envisioned that the open science approach could significantly aid African scholars and researchers in contributing to the decolonisation and legitimation of knowledge.

Given the disruptions COVID-19 caused to normal research processes, including international collaboration, this study sought to understand scientists' experiences collaborating internationally during the pandemic on COVID-19-related research. Specifically, it explored US scientists' tie formation and reasons for international research collaboration with Chinese scientists. The study employed a sequential exploratory mixed methods design collecting interview and survey data from US scientists who co-published articles related to COVID-19 with Chinese scientists. The findings revealed the role of network mechanisms, such as transitivity, opportunity of contact, and homophily, in promoting relationship formation and maintenance. Moreover, they showed the greater role that bonding social capital played in helping scientists access valuable knowledge, skills, and resources to enhance their research potential. Lastly, they demonstrated how particularized trust based on prior interactions and experiences encouraged relationship formation and collaboration between US and Chinese scientists. Together, these results provide new insights in informing future policies and guidelines related to supporting international collaboration and, ultimately, shared pandemic challenges. (HRK / Abstract übernommen).