Abstract
This study builds the interdisciplinary knowledge network of China, which is used to catch the knowledge exchange structure of disciplines, and investigates the evolution process from 1981 to 2010. A network analysis was performed to examine the special structure and we compare state of the networks in different periods to determine how the network has got such properties. The dataset are get from the reference relationship in literature on important Chinese academic journals from 1980 to 2010. The analytical results reveal the hidden network structure of interdisciplinary knowledge flows in China and demonstrate that the network is highly connected and has a homogeneous link structure and heterogeneous weight distribution. Through comparing of the network in three periods, that is 1981–1990, 1991–2000 and 2001–2010, we find that the special evolution process, which is limited by the number of nodes, play an important influence on interdisciplinary knowledge flows.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are very grateful for the insightful comments and suggestions of the anonymous reviewers and Editor-in-Chief Prof. Braun, which have helped to significantly improve the article. Furthermore, this study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 70901023), the Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education of China (No. 20101102120024), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 20090450967, No. 201003430), Aviation Science Fund (No. 2010ZG51073), and Open Fund of ISTIC-Thomson Reuters Joint Lab for Scientometrics Research (No. IT2010002).
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Liu, C., Shan, W. & Yu, J. Shaping the interdisciplinary knowledge network of China: a network analysis based on citation data from 1981 to 2010. Scientometrics 89, 89–106 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0450-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0450-6