Towards institutional analysis of sustainability science: a quantitative examination of the patterns of research collaboration

Abstract

This paper examines quantitatively the patterns of collaboration over geographical boundaries in the emerging field of sustainability science by empirically analyzing the bibliometric data of scientific articles. The results indicate that an increasing number of countries are engaged in research on sustainability, with the proportion of articles published through international collaboration rising as well. The number of countries engaged in international collaboration on sustainability research has been increasing, and the diversity of countries engaged in research collaboration beyond national borders is also increasing. The geographical patterns of collaboration on sustainability show that research collaboration tends to be conducted between countries which are geographically located closely, suggesting that communication and information exchange might be limited within the regional clusters. The focused fields of research activities on sustainability are significantly different between countries, as each country has its focused fields of research related to sustainability. The specialization of research activities is also observed in international collaboration. While these patterns of international collaboration within regional clusters focusing on specific fields could be effective in promoting the creation, transmission, and sharing of knowledge on sustainability utilizing the already existing regional networks, they could pose a serious obstacle to collecting, exchanging, and integrating diverse types of knowledge, especially when it is necessary to deal with problems involving large-scale complex interactions with long-term implications, such as climate change. It would be of critical importance to establish inter-regional linkages by devising appropriate institutional arrangements for global research collaboration on sustainability science.

Bibliometry of the Revista de Biología Tropical / International Journal of Tropical Biology and Conservation: document types, languages, countries, institutions, citations and article lifespan

“…The reduction in the number of papers from Costa Rica in recent years may result from tightened standards in the journal and that space seem to be filling up with an increased presence of Brazilian articles in recent issues (JMN personal observation). Previous studies with other journals have reported that authors establish de facto networks that collaborate and repeatedly cite each other (Ronda & Guerras, 2010;Fatt, Abu Ujum & Ratnavelu, 2010;Schulz & Nicolai, 2015), and that neighboring countries share interests and collaborate in certain research topics (Yarime, Takeda & Kajikawa, 2010). Our results suggest that this shared interest research takes place in the cases of Mexico, Venezuela and Costa Rica, which are mostly covered by tropical ecosystems, share a common language (Spanish) and often collaborate in research (De Filippo, González, & Sanz-Casado, 2016).…”

Sustainability science: a review, an analysis and some empirical lessons

“…Key terms found across many themes include education, biotechnology, medical, lifestock, climate change, welfare and livelihoods (Kajikawa et al 2007). However, behind the diverse range of themes there is a pattern: the focused fields are significantly different between countries, and between the diverse networks of neighbouring country collaborators (Yarime et al 2010). Sustainability science provides information indispensible for solving the sustainability challenge.…”

The State of Research on Cleaner Production in Brazil

“…Yarime, Takeda, and Kajikawa (2010) comment that various attempts have been initiated to create global systems of research collaboration among universities in order to improve the quality of studies. The country analysis seeks to identify the origins of the universities affiliated with the published authors.…”

“…According to Machado, Manfrin, Lima, Silva, and Maciel (2012), a country analysis consists of identifying the geographic locations of the universities through the author affiliations. Yarime et al (2010) note that an analysis of countries includes international collaborations within a specific thematic, which can be effective for sharing existing regional knowledge.…”

“…Another study on research technology, knowledge, science, and evolution and policy identified the degree of concentration of these articles as 35% in universities in the United States, and 20% in universities in developing countries (Radosevic, 2008). When addressing sustainability, US universities published 27%, and UK universities published 11% (Yarime et al, 2010).…”