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International coauthorship relations in the S ocial S ciences C itation I ndex: Is internationalization leading the Network?
Author(s) -
Leydesdorff Loet,
Park Han Woo,
Wagner Caroline
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of the association for information science and technology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.903
H-Index - 145
eISSN - 2330-1643
pISSN - 2330-1635
DOI - 10.1002/asi.23102
Subject(s) - internationalization , dimension (graph theory) , distribution (mathematics) , sociology , political science , mathematics , economics , combinatorics , international trade , mathematical analysis
International coauthorship relations have increasingly shaped another dynamic in the natural and life sciences during recent decades. However, much less is known about such internationalization in the social sciences. I n this study, we analyze international and domestic coauthorship relations of all citable items in the DVD version of the S ocial S ciences C itation I ndex 2011 ( SSCI ). Network statistics indicate 4 groups of nations: (a) an Asian‐Pacific one to which all A nglo‐ S axon nations (including the U nited K ingdom and I reland) are attributed, (b) a continental E uropean one including also the L atin‐ A merican countries, (c) the Scandinavian nations, and (d) a community of A frican nations. Within the EU ‐28, 11 of the EU ‐15 states have dominant positions. I n many respects, the network parameters are not so different from the S cience C itation I ndex . I n addition to these descriptive statistics, we address the question of the relative weights of the international versus domestic networks. An information‐theoretical test is proposed at the level of organizational addresses within each nation; the results are mixed, but the international dimension is more important than the national one in the aggregated sets (as in the S cience C itation I ndex ). I n some countries (e.g., F rance), however, the national distribution is leading more than the international one. Decomposition of the U nited S tates in terms of states shows a similarly mixed result; more U . S . states are domestically oriented in the SSCI and more internationally in the SCI . The international networks have grown during the last decades in addition to the national ones but not by replacing them.