Study On The Patterns And Impacts Of China’s International Scientific And Technological Collaboration Based On Scientometrics

In the era of Big Science, for the more complication of scientific research issues, thefaster changes of technology and the more distinctness of the trend of scientificspecialization, a lot of R&D funding and technological resources need to be invested intothe research process. Nevertheless, since that the processes and results of scientific andtechnologic research have high-level uncertainty and risk, the related collaboration hasbecome an inevitable choice for the development of science and technology(S&T).Furthermore, along with the globalization development of S&T, the International Scientificand Technological Collaboration (ISTC) is becoming a strategic choice for the S&Tdevelopment of every country. For more than30years of the national reform andopening-up, China has made a vigorous development in ISTC and formed a new pattern ofhigh-level international collaboration which is comprehensive, multi-channel, wide-areaand multi-subject. And it is necessary to analyze the patterns and impacts of China’s ISTCto grasp new opportunities brought by the world’s scientific and technological development,to use of global scientific and technological resources efficiently, to adapt with the demandof Twelfth Five-year Plan better, and to promote China’s national innovation system ofinternational strategy in the coexist environment of collaboration and competition.In recent years, scientometrics has been used to measure the extent of ISTC. However,there are few research results of measuring the patterns and impacts of ISTC based on multidimensions and quantity analysis through researching the operational mechanism of ISTCand combining S&T policy analysis with collaboration output measuring analysis. So basedon scientometrics and deep research for operational mechanism of ISTC, this studyintegrates scientometrics, S&T policy analysis, Structure-Conduct-Performance (SCP)analysis, social network analysis and econometrics to try to answer the following questions:Over the past20years, what is the trend of the development of China’s ISTC? What are thecollaboration patterns? What are the impacts of ISTC on China’s S&T development and towhat extent? And so on. And then hope the answers can be used for China’s ISTC strategyand policies in future.First at all, this paper reviews the theories related to ISTC, analyzed the operationalmechanism of China’s ISTC based on the SCP paradigm, and studied the applicationstatement of scientometrics in the ISTC research. Then an analytical framework on thepatterns and impacts of China’s ISTC is established. After that the outputs of China’s ISTC are evaluated by considering the study on evolution process of China’s ISTC strategy andpolicies. And the patterns of international scientific collaboration are studied from theviews of countries, subjects and the leading-dependence model, as well as the patterns ofinternational technological collaboration are studied from both dimensions of inventors’countries and patentees’ countries. Then the characteristics of the China’sgovernment-funded ISTC are analyzed by both views of China’s government institutionsand S&T plans. And then the qualities of international collaboration papers andnon-international collaboration papers are compared based on both dimensions of therelative citation rate and the impact extent of the papers with high-impact factors, as well asthe impacts of ISTC patterns on paper qualities are measured by a regression model.Furthermore, this paper evaluates the influence of ISTC on the development of subjectsfrom the views of multi-subject research, advanced ideas and important institutions of eachsubject and so on. The main contents include:(1) Analytical framework of the patterns and impacts of China’s ISTC based onscientometricsFirstly, this paper reviews the basic theories related to ISTC, introduces the definition,main forms and motivation of it. Secondly, it evaluates the operating mechanism of ISTCbased on the SCP paradigm analysis. Thirdly, it introduces the application of scientometricsin related researches on ISTC. Finally, based on scientometric it establishes the analyticalframework which is the basis of study in chapters that follow.(2) Analysis of the outputs and patterns of China’s ISTCFirstly, this paper reviews the developing process and policy evolution of China’s ISTC,and specially focused on the collaborations of China with both of the United States andEurope. Secondly, it concludes the general characteristics of performance that is the outputof papers and patents caused by ISTC through analyzing the related output statement.Finally, it researches on the patterns of international scientific collaboration form the viewsof countries, subjects and the leading-dependence model, as well as the patterns ofinternational technological collaboration from both dimensions of inventors’ countries andpatentees’ countries.(3) Characteristics of China’s governmental funding for ISTCConsidering the data of China’s papers written in collaboration with other countries andthe importance of collaboration of China with both of the United States and Europe, basedon bibliometrics this paper studies the SCI papers originated from the China’s government-funded collaboration with both of the United States and Europe in2008-2012in the aspects of the number, countries, fields, joint funding, high-impact factors and so onfrom the views of China’s government institutions and S&T plans. Then it can answer thequestions: What are the obvious features of China’s government-funded collaboration? Inwhich aspects has that collaboration played an important role? And what are thedeficiencies?(4) Measurement of the impacts of China’s ISTC on the paper qualityFirstly, this paper surveys the study on the impact of collaboration on researchperformance, and proposed research hypotheses and methods. Secondly, it compares thequalities of international collaboration papers and non-international collaboration papersbased on both dimensions of the relative citation rate and the impact extent of the paperswith high-impact factors. Finally, an econometric model has been built to measure theinfluence of the patterns of ISTC on paper quality(Journal Impact Factor and CitationFrequency).(5) Measurement of the impacts of China’s ISTC on the development of subjectsAn empirical analysis of the influence of international collaboration on the developmentof subjects is conducted, which is in the views of promoting multi-subject research andforcing development of academic frontier and important institutions of sujects, and whosemethods include scientometrics which is the main one, typical case analysis andcomparative analysis.Based on the above, after analyzing of China’s ISTC policies and funding system, thispaper finds the main problems of development of China’s ISTC, which are that there is nocertain national-level ISTC strategy, ISTC cross-institution coordination mechanism has tobe set up as soon as possible, the detailed implementing rules of “opening-up” policy ofnational-level S&T programs need to be completed, the China’s interdisciplinary researchlevel need to be improved, China’s high-quality research results have high dependence oninternational collaboration, Enterprises of China have not yet been the main participants ofinternational technological collaboration, and so on. At the end, this paper proposed somepolicy suggestions on the development and management of China’s ISTC.