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The Matthew Effect in China’s social sciences and humanities research: a comparative analysis of CSSCI and SSCI

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Abstract

This paper investigates the concentration and dispersion phenomenon observed in China’s Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) research. Our study presents an in-depth comparison and analysis of the number of papers published in the Chinese Social Sciences and Humanities Citation Index (CSSCI) and the Social Sciences and Humanities Citation Index (SSCI), including their source institutions, and the proportion of citations among elite and non-elite universities in China. Our findings are as following: (1) Over the past decade, the number of China’s SSCI papers has increased, while the number of CSSCI papers has decreased. Moreover, the ratio of papers published by elite universities to non-elite universities has decreased in SSCI while increased in CSSCI. (2) The comparison of ratios of elite and non-elite universities’ shares of publications indicated that the higher the journal level, the higher the ratio of elite and non-elite universities’ share. (3) When comparing the Herfindahl–Hirschman index value of higher education institutions, we noted a decreasing trend in SSCI while an increasing trend in CSSCI.

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Notes

  1. Project 211 was launched in 1995 by the Ministry of Education of China with the ambitious objective of establishing 100 world-class universities by the turn of the twenty-first century. Eventually, a total of 112 universities were granted admission to this prestigious initiative, with 39 of them also being admitted in Project 985.

  2. Project 985, initially announced by Zemin Jiang, the Chairman of the People’s Republic of China, on May 4, 1998, aimed to foster the development of a Chinese equivalent to the prestigious US Ivy League within Chinese Universities. The inception of this Chinese Ivy League took place in 2009 with the inclusion of nine universities, followed by an additional 30 universities being accepted over the next two years. These 39 universities are all part of Project 211, but they receive more substantial government funding compared to other Project 211 universities.

  3. https://incites.help.clarivate.com/Content/Research-Areas/china-scadc-subject-categories.htm.

  4. The formula of HHI is

    $$H={\sum }_{i=1}^{n}{Si}^{2},$$

    where Si is the market share of firm i in the market, and N is the number of firms.

  5. The Journal Impact Factor (JIF) is a trademark owned by Clarivate. It is widely used in China’s scholarly communication system, where its Chinese name 影响因子 is commonly employed.

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Funding

This study was supported by National Planning Office of Philosophy and Social Science (Grant No. 21BTQ103).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chinese Academy of Science and Education Evaluation (CASSE), Hangzhou Dianzi University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, People’s Republic of China

    Bo Yu & Fei Shu

  2. École de bibliothéconomie et des sciences de l’information, Université de Montréal, Montréal, QC, Canada

    Fei Shu

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  1. Bo Yu
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  2. Fei Shu
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Correspondence to Fei Shu.

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Yu, B., Shu, F. The Matthew Effect in China’s social sciences and humanities research: a comparative analysis of CSSCI and SSCI. Scientometrics 128, 6177–6193 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-023-04818-y

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