Abstract
This chapter examines the internationalization of research as revealed in the CAP data. Once having distinguished between two basic dimensions of the internationalization of academic research, namely, the international content or topics of researches and international networks or research collaborators, the factors that explain international research collaboration are identified. Next, research outputs and their dissemination are considered. The impact of collaborating with international colleagues on individual scientific productivity is tested empirically, and the relationship between individual collaboration with international colleagues and international coauthorship is also analyzed. Results of the multivariate regression analyses confirm the existence of differences among disciplines in patterns of international research collaboration as well as the impact of the type of research in which academics are engaged and continued inequalities in the internationalization of research. The impact of international collaboration on individual productivity is positive in all disciplines, as it is on coauthorship with foreign colleagues.
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Notes
- 1.
The answers to these two independent questions ranged between “very much” and “not at all.” This way of inquiring research’s characteristics provides the opportunity for a more nuanced understanding of the divide between basic and applied research. At one pole, it is possible to identify a purely basic or theoretical research, that is, a type of research very much characterized as basic or theoretical and not at all as applied or practically oriented. At the opposite pole, it is possible to identify a purely applied research, that is, a type of research very much characterized as applied and not at all as theoretical. In between these two extremes, it is possible to identify several other types of research variously combining basic/theoretical and applied/practically oriented characters.
- 2.
At an advanced stage of the CAP study, a different classification of Chinese institutions of higher education was proposed including within the category “universities” only national public universities while including not only local public colleges but also local public universities – previously considered as “universities” – within the category “other higher education institutions.” As a consequence, authors have rerun the data analysis on international research collaboration in order to check possible differences. No significant difference in results was found between the model including context factors presented in the text and the same model using the new classification of Chinese institutions. Further, the two models without context factors but including participating countries yield almost identical results. The net impact of working in China remains negative, but the corresponding estimate loses statistical significance suggesting the need to be cautious in drawing conclusions. Our interpretation is that although international research collaboration was more frequent in Chinese national public universities, this did not change the overall position of China within international research networks at the time of the survey.
- 3.
Survey participants who were not active in the current academic year of the survey but were active in the previous were asked to consider that year’s activities when marking their selections. It is to be noted that while the question on international collaboration refers to the current academic year or the previous one, the question on scholarly contributions refers to the past three years.
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Rostan, M., Ceravolo, F.A., Metcalfe, A.S. (2014). The Internationalization of Research. In: Huang, F., Finkelstein, M., Rostan, M. (eds) The Internationalization of the Academy. The Changing Academy – The Changing Academic Profession in International Comparative Perspective, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-7278-6_7
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