Abstract
Global science is not an equal ground. Certain national science systems are more centrally positioned in global science than others. However, recent trends indicate a move towards a more plural global science. For example, traditionally non- ‘core’ science systems exercise their agency in expanding collaboration among themselves, thus leading to increasing global scientific connectivity. The traditionally core national science systems gradually lose their strong gatekeeping roles. However, the dominant theoretical lenses, including world-systems theory, seem to fail to acknowledge and explain these recent trends. Against this backdrop, this study highlights an agential perspective in examining the global connectivity among science systems. Chinese and Turkish science systems were selected for an early exploration of the identified phenomenon. The study reveals that the connectivity between Chinese–Turkish science systems is multilateral, involving diverse science systems around the globe. Although Euro-American systems, as traditionally core systems, remain crucial, they do not dominate the connectivity. China is the strongest system in this connectivity, but collaboration benefits both countries, as well as global science.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
The Organization-Enhanced field uses a unified list of preferred names. Many variants of an institution’s name have been grouped together (all captured on publications) to enable the search for preferred organization names and/or their name variants from the Preferred Organization Index.
References
Adams, J. (2012). The rise of research networks. Nature, 490(7420), 335–336. https://doi.org/10.1038/490335a
Altbach, P. G. (2007). Globalization and the university: Realities in an unequal world. In J. J. F. Forest & P. G. Altbach (Eds.), International handbook of higher education (pp. 121–139). Springer.
Castells, M. (2010). The rise of the network society (2nd ed.). Wiley.
Chankseliani, M., Lovakov, A., & Pislyakov, V. (2021). A big picture: Bibliometric study of academic publications from post-Soviet countries. Scientometrics. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04124-5
Choi, S. (2012). Core-periphery, new clusters, or rising stars?: International scientific collaboration among “advanced” countries in the era of globalization. Scientometrics, 90(1), 25–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0509-4
de Santos, B. S. (2016). Epistemologies of the South: Justice against epistemicide. Routledge.
Frenken, K., Hoekman, J., Kok, S., Ponds, R., van Oort, F., & van Vliet, J. (2019). Death of distance in science? A gravity approach to research collaboration. In A. Pyka & A. Scharnhorst (Eds.), Innovation networks: Understanding complex systems (pp. 43–57). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-92267-4_3
Glänzel, W., & Schubert, A. (2001). Double effort = Double impact? A critical view at international co-authorship in chemistry. Scientometrics, 50(2), 199–214. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010561321723
Gümüş, S., Bellibaş, M. Ş, Gümüş, E., & Hallinger, P. (2020). Science mapping research on educational leadership and management in Turkey: A bibliometric review of international publications. School Leadership and Management, 40(1), 23–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2019.1578737
Gunter, A., & Raghuram, P. (2018). International study in the global south: Linking institutional, staff, student and knowledge mobilities. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 16(2), 192–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2017.1401453
Hoekman, J., Frenken, K., & Tijssen, R. J. W. (2010). Research collaboration at a distance: Changing spatial patterns of scientific collaboration within Europe. Research Policy, 39(5), 662–673. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2010.01.012
Kondakci, Y. (2011). Student mobility reviewed: Attraction and satisfaction of international students in Turkey. Higher Education, 62(5), 573–592. https://doi.org/10.1007/S10734-01
Kwiek, M. (2020). What large-scale publication and citation data tell us about international research collaboration in Europe: Changing national patterns in global contexts. Studies in Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1749254
Le Ha, P. (2018). Higher education, English, and the idea of ‘the West’: Globalizing and encountering a global south regional university. Discourse, 39(5), 782–797. https://doi.org/10.1080/01596306.2018.1448704
Levy, S. (2020). Huawei, 5G, and the Man Who Conquered Noise. Wired. Retrieved March 13, 2022 from https://www.wired.com/story/huawei-5g-polar-codes-data-breakthrough/
Leydesdorff, L., & Wagner, C. S. (2008). International collaboration in science and the formation of a core group. Journal of Informetrics, 2(4), 317–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2008.07.003
Marginson, S. (2010). Higher education in the global knowledge economy. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2(5), 6962–6980. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.05.049
Marginson, S. (2018a). Global cooperation, national competition and social inequality in the World-Class University (WCU)sector (Issue 34). Retrieved May 7, 2021 from https://www.researchcghe.org
Marginson, S. (2018b). National/Global Synergy in the Development of Higher Education and Science in China since Introduction: “The Most Crucial of the Four Modernizations.” Frontiers of Education in China, 13(4), 486–512.
Marginson, S. (2018c). The new geopolitics of higher education (No. 34; Issue April). Retrieved October 29, 2021 from https://www.researchcghe.org/publications/working-paper/the-new-geo-politics-of-higher-education/
Marginson, S. (2020). The world research system. In C. Callender, W. Locke, & S. Marginson (Eds.), Changing higher education for a changing world (pp. 35–51). Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781350108448.0010
Marginson, S. (2021). Global science and national comparisons: Beyond bibliometrics and scientometrics. Comparative Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2021.1981725
Marginson, S., & Xu, X. (2021). Moving beyond centre-periphery science: Towards an ecology of knowledge (No. 63; Issue April). Retrieved August 6, 2021 from https://www.researchcghe.org/perch/resources/publications/working-paper-63.pdf
Marginson, S., & Yang, L. (2021). Individual and collective outcomes of higher education: A comparison of Anglo-American and Chinese approaches. Globalisation, Societies and Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2021.1932436
McGrew, A., & Held, D. (2007). Globalization theory: Approaches and controversies. Polity Press.
Mun, O. (2020). Epistemic Injustices in Internationalising Humanities and Social Sciences: A Case Study of Higher Education and Science Institutes in Kazakhstan. In H. de Wit & T. DeLaquil (Eds.), Innovative and Inclusive Internationalization: Proceedings of the WES–CIHE Summer Institute 2020 Boston College. Center for International Higher Education. Retrieved December 6, 2021 from https://www.bc.edu/content/dam/bc1/schools/lsoe/sites/cihe/publication/Perspectives/PerspectivesNo18.pdf
National Science Board. (2019). Publications output: U.S. trends and international comparisons. National Science Board.
Olechnicka, A., Ploszaj, A., & Celińska-Janowicz, D. (2019). The geography of scientific collaboration. Routledge.
Oldac, Y. I., & Yang, L. (2021). Two edges of Asia in a multipolar world: The interconnections between Chinese and Turkish higher education systems. Higher Education Governance and Policy, 2(2), 68–81. https://dergipark.org.tr/en/pub/hegp/issue/67725/947578
Quan, W., Chen, B., & Shu, F. (2017). Publish or impoverish: An investigation of the monetary reward system of science in China (1999–2016). Aslib Journal of Information Management, 69(5), 486–502. https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-01-2017-0014
Rojas, C. A. A. (2012). The world-systems analysis perspective: An interview with Immanuel Wallerstein. In I. Wallerstein, C. A. Rojas, & C. C. Lemert (Eds.), Uncertain worlds: World-systems analysis in changing times (pp. 1–100). Routledge.
Sarwar, R., & Hassan, S. U. I. (2015). A bibliometric assessment of scientific productivity and international collaboration of the Islamic World in science and technology (S&T) areas. Scientometrics, 105(2), 1059–1077. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1718-z
Science and Technology Select Committee of the House of Lords. (2012). Higher Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subjects (Issue July). Retrieved October 1, 2001 from https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld201213/ldselect/ldsctech/37/37.pdf
Sen, A. (1985). Well-being, agency and freedom: The Dewey Lectures 1984. The Journal of Philosophy, 5882(4), 196–221.
Sugimoto, C. R., Robinson-Garcia, N., Murray, D. S., Yegros-Yegros, A., Costas, R., & Larivière, V. (2017). Scientists have most impact when they’re free to move. Nature, 550(7674), 29–31. https://doi.org/10.1038/550029a
Suttmeier, R. P., & Simon, D. F. (2014). Conflict and cooperation in the development of US–China relations in science and technology: Empirical observations and theoretical implications. In M. Mayer & M. Carpes (Eds.), The Global politics of science and technology (pp. 143–159). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55010-2_9
UNESCO. (2010). Unesco Science Report 2010. Unesco Publishing.
van Eck, N. J., & Waltman, L. (2010). Software survey: VOSviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. Scientometrics, 84(2), 523–538. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3
van der Wende, M., & Zhu, J. (2016). Matching visibility and performance. In N. C. Liu, Y. Cheng, & Q. Wang (Eds.), Matching visibility and performance (pp. 119–137). Sense Publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-6300-773-3
van der Wende, M., Kirby, W. C., Liu, N. C., & Marginson, S. (Eds.). (2020). China and Europe on the new silk road: Connecting Universities across Eurasia. Oxford University Press.
Wang, D., & Barabási, A.-L. (2020). The science of science. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1145/3383583.3398500
Wagner, C. S. (2018). The collaborative era in science: Governing the network. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94986-4
Wagner, C. S., Park, H. W., & Leydesdorff, L. (2015). The continuing growth of global cooperation networks in research: A conundrum for national governments. PLoS ONE, 10(7), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0131816
Wagner, C. S., Whetsell, T. A., & Leydesdorff, L. (2017). Growth of international collaboration in science: Revisiting six specialties. Scientometrics, 110(3), 1633–1652. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2230-9
Wallerstein, I. (1976). Semi-peripheral Countries and the contemporary world crisis. Theory and Society, 3, 461–483.
Wallerstein, I. (2004). World-systems analysis: An introduction. Duke University Press. https://doi.org/10.5860/choice.42-4956
World Bank. (2022). World Bank open data. World Bank.
Xu, X. (2020). China ‘goes out’ in a centre–periphery world: Incentivizing international publications in the humanities and social sciences. Higher Education, 80, 157–172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10734-019-00470-9
Funding
This work was supported by Lingnan University Faculty Research Grant under grant number 103407. Yusuf Ikbal Oldac is a Hong Kong Research Grants Council Postdoctoral Fellow, funded by the University Grants Council.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Oldac, Y.I., Yang, L. The connectivity between Chinese and Turkish science systems: an agential perspective. Asia Pacific Educ. Rev. 24, 531–544 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09799-w
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12564-022-09799-w