Chinese co-authored papers in the humanities and social sciences indexed by SSCI and A&HCL, 1995-2004: A Statistical analysis

Abstract

Collaborative research is one of the most noteworthy trends in the development of scientific research, and co-authored papers are some of the most important results of this research. With the speed-up of globalization, wider adoption of computers and advanced communication technologies, and more frequent academic exchanges and co-operation, collaborative research across organizations, regions, and fields has provided greater access to Chinese researchers in the humanities and social sciences. Accordingly, co-authored papers have witnessed considerable growth in number and proportion. The Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) and the Arts & Humanities Citation Index (A&HCI), published by the Institute for Scientific Information (USA), enjoy a high reputation worldwide as large-scale and comprehensive retrieval systems for international large comprehensive papers and citations. This article aims to reveal the trends of Chinese collaborative research in the humanities and social sciences from the perspective of bibliometrics and offer advice for Chinese researchers and managers in these fields, by analyzing Chinese co-authored papers in the humanities and social sciences indexed in the SSCI and A&HCI in the last decade (1995-2004).