Is there convergence in international research collaboration? An exploration at the country level in the basic and applied science fields

International scientific collaborative activities and barriers to them in eight societies

Scientific research increasingly requires international collaboration among scientists. Less is known, however, about the barriers that impede such collaboration. In this pioneering study, more than 9000 scientists from eight societies - the United States, the United Kingdom, India, Italy, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Turkey, and France - were surveyed to gauge scientists' attitudes and experiences. While most scientists claimed international collaboration was important, their actual participation in such collaborations was much lower. We identified the prevalence rates of three types of barriers (political, logistical, and cultural) based on categories developed from previous work. In addition, we identified nine additional categories of barriers. Key barriers to collaboration that scientists identified included lack of funding for international work, restrictions on material and data sharing, and differences in academic standards. Respondents also complained about bias against scholars from emerging or developing countries. Our study highlights areas where efforts could be made to address policy issues, institutional barriers, and national biases to promote more productive collaboration in the global scientific community.

Fuel-Cell Electric Vehicles: Plotting a Scientific and Technological Knowledge Map

The fuel-cell electric vehicle (FCEV) has been defined as a promising way to avoid road transport greenhouse emissions, but nowadays, they are not commercially available. However, few studies have attempted to monitor the global scientific research and technological profile of FCEVs. For this reason, scientific research and technological development in the field of FCEV from 1999 to 2019 have been researched using bibliometric and patent data analysis, including network analysis. Based on reports, the current status indicates that FCEV research topics have reached maturity. In addition, the analysis reveals other important findings: (1) The USA is the most productive in science and patent jurisdiction; (2) both Chinese universities and their authors are the most productive in science; however, technological development is led by Japanese car manufacturers; (3) in scientific research, collaboration is located within the tri-polar world (North America–Europe–Asia-Pacific); nonetheless, technological development is isolated to collaborations between companies of the same automotive group; (4) science is currently directing its efforts towards hydrogen production and storage, energy management systems related to battery and hydrogen energy, Life Cycle Assessment, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The technological development focuses on technologies related to electrically propelled vehicles; (5) the International Journal of Hydrogen Energy and SAE Technical Papers are the two most important sources of knowledge diffusion. This study concludes by outlining the knowledge map and directions for further research.

A Bibliometric Analysis of the Health Field Regarding Social Networks and Young People

Social networks have historically been used to share information and support regarding health-related topics, and this usage has increased with the rise of online social media. Young people are high users of social media, both as passive listeners and as active contributors. This study aimed to map the trends in publications focused on social networks, health, and young people over the last 40 years. Scopus and the program VOSviewer were used to map the frequency of the publications, keywords, and clusters of researchers active in the field internationally. A structured keyword search using the Scopus database yielded 11,966 publications. The results reveal a long history of research on social networks, health, and young people. Research articles were the most common type of publication (68%), most of which described quantitative studies (82%). The main discipline represented in this literature was medicine, with 6062 documents. North American researchers dominate the field, both as authors and partners in international research collaborations. The present article adds to the literature by elucidating the growing importance of social networks in health research as a topic of study. This may help to inform future investments in public health research and surveillance using these novel data sources.