Scientific collaboration in China as reflected in co-authorship

Summary

A chronically weak area in research papers, reports, and reviews is the complete identification of background documents that formed the building blocks for these papers. A method for systematically determining these seminal references is presented. Citation-Assisted Background (CAB) is based on the assumption that seminal documents tend to be highly cited. CAB is being applied presently to three applications studies, and the results so far are much superior to those used by the first author for background development in any other study. An example of the application of CAB to the field of Nonlinear Dynamics is outlined. While CAB is a highly systematic approach for identifying seminal references, it is not a substitute for the judgement of the researchers, and serves as a supplement.