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The dual dimension of scientific research experience acquisition and its development: a 40-year analysis of Chinese Humanities and Social Sciences Journals

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Abstract

Scientific experience is crucial for producing high-quality research, and the approach of acquisition can significantly impact its accumulation rate. We present a framework for scientific experience acquisition that outlines the dual dimensions of experience accumulation: self-accumulation and accumulation under senior expert guidance. To validate the framework, we conducted a case study using 2,957,700 papers from all 568 Chinese humanities and social science journals, taking into account the limitations of the international journal system. Our findings reveal that self-accumulation has been gradually declining, decreasing from 57.67% in 1980 to 4.55% in 2020. Conversely, accumulation under senior expert guidance has been steadily increasing, rising from 5.7% in 1980 to 28.69% in 2020. Furthermore, the proportion of the two approaches varies by discipline. Social sciences such as Psychology, Economics, and Management, which rely more on large teams and collaborative research, have a higher proportion of accumulation under senior expert guidance than humanities disciplines like Art, History, and Philosophy, which depend more on individual research. Finally, this research also offers a distinctive exploration of the question posed by the US National Science and Technology Council (2008): how and why do communities of innovation form and evolve.

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Notes

  1. The term “senior expert” in this context refers to individuals who can share their experiences with newcomers entering academia, not just a student's supervisor.

  2. The Chinese version of Social Science Citation Index.

  3. The data is sourced from the National Name Report, published by China's Ministry of Public Security. This report includes a count of common surnames and the most frequently used first names across different generations. By combining common surnames with the most popular first names, a list of common names is generated.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (Grant No. 2023D01C28), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 72071196), the Ph.D. Scientific research Start-up Project of Xinjiang University (Grant No. BS202104), the Tianchi Doctoral Project of Xinjiang (Grant No. TCBS202050) and the Xinjiang High-level Talents Tianchi Program (Grant No. TCBR202104).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Politics and Public Administration, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China

    Kun Chen

  2. Collaborative Innovation Center for National Security Research, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China

    Kun Chen

  3. School of Marxism, Xinjiang University, Urumqi, 830046, China

    Xia-xia Gao

  4. Institutes of Science and Development, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100190, China

    Yi-di Huang & Guo-liang Yang

  5. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Yi-di Huang & Guo-liang Yang

  6. CECEP Talroad Technology Company, Urumqi, 830046, China

    Wen-tao Xu

  7. School of Economics, Beijing Technology and Business University, Beijing, 100048, China

    Guo-liang Yang

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Correspondence to Guo-liang Yang.

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Appendix

Appendix

See Table 8.

Table 8 List of top journals in China humanities and social sciences system
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Chen, K., Gao, Xx., Huang, Yd. et al. The dual dimension of scientific research experience acquisition and its development: a 40-year analysis of Chinese Humanities and Social Sciences Journals. Scientometrics 129, 2827–2853 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-024-05002-6

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