Research collaboration networks in Latin American geography education

Abstract

The current development of science is characterized by a global trend of scientific collaboration (SC). However, this growth has been mostly linked to intra-national cooperation. Several factors including geographic, institutional, and social proximities have been identified as key for promoting or hinder collaboration among scholars. Based on these premises, the present study analyses the co-authorship and affiliation relationships among geography education researchers in Latin America, exploring through a general trend and social network analysis, the characteristics of SC in geography education. For this purpose, 1774 articles (922 co-authored) published within the region were included as part of the data used for understanding the structure of SC. The results showed an increasing and dominant pattern of co-authoring in the region, but mostly developed at the local and national scale, with scarce intra-regional research. Moreover, the network analysis showed that there are some institutions with a dominant role in the production of research, and a loose network structure of research that could foster diverse perspectives on the field. These findings offer opportunities for thinking about how to enhance future SC processes in the region to strengthen the development of geography education research based on a regional collaborative approach.