Skip to main content
Log in

The unbalanced performance and regional differences in scientific and technological collaboration in the field of solar cells

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This study attempts to explore collaborations in the field of solar cell science and technology, focusing on the productivity and citations of papers and patents at the global and country levels. This study finds that most papers and patents are collaborative efforts, however, the rate of collaboration is higher for papers. In particular, international collaboration is not common in patents. In terms of performance, international collaborations have shown the best performance overall if looking at trends that cover the 30 years from 1980 to 2009, but the performance of single-authored papers has been better in the more recent ten-year period, 2000–2009. At the country level, we found that most countries have higher rates of international collaboration with greater numbers in papers and patents. Asian countries such as Japan, Taiwan and India have significant citation performance with high ratios for domestic collaboration; the rates are even greater than the average ratio for international collaboration.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Avkiran, N. (1997). Scientific collaboration in finance does not lead to better quality research. Scientometrics, 39(2), 173–184.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaver, D. (2001). Reflections on scientific collaboration (and its study): Past, present, and future. Scientometrics, 52(3), 365–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bornmann, L., & Daniel, H.-D. (2008). What do citation counts measure? A review of studies on citing behavior. Journal of Documentation, 64(1), 45–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cole, J., & Cole, S. (1971). Measuring the quality of sociological research: Problems in the use of the “Science Citation Index”. The American Sociologist, 6(1), 23–29.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gupta, B., & Karisiddappa, C. (1998). Collaboration in theoretical population genetics speciality. Scientometrics, 42(3), 349–376.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Heffner, A. (1981). Funded research, multiple authorship, and subauthorship collaboration in four disciplines. Scientometrics, 3(1), 5–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang, M. H., Lee, W. Y., & Chen, D. Z. (2010). On the concentration of productivity and impact in science and technology. In R. Sabherwal & S. Soloon (Eds.), 2010 IEEE international conference on management of innovation & technology (ICMIT 2010) (pp. 203–208). Singapore: IEEE.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Katz, J., & Hicks, D. (1997). How much is a collaboration worth? A calibrated bibliometric model. Scientometrics, 40(3), 541–554.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, M. (2005). Korean science and international collaboration, 1995–2000. Scientometrics, 63(2), 321–339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Larsen, K. (2008). Knowledge network hubs and measures of research impact, science structure, and publication output in nanostructured solar cell research. Scientometrics, 74(1), 123–142.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lo, S. C. S. (2010). A comparative study of linkage indexes: Co-assignee, reciprocal citation, patent coupling and co-patent. Journal of Library and Information Studies, 8(1), 11–27.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, M., & Bhattacharya, S. (2004). Commonalities and differences between scholarly and technical collaboration. Scientometrics, 61(3), 443–456.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price, D. J. D. S. (1986). Little science, big science—And beyond. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmoch, U., & Schubert, T. (2008). Are international co-publications an indicator for quality of scientific research? Scientometrics, 74(3), 361–377.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sin, S.-C. J. (2011). Longitudinal trends in internationalisation, collaboration types, and citation impact: A bibliometric analysis of seven LIS journals (1980–2008). Journal of Library and Information Studies, 9(1), 27–49.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sooryamoorthy, R. (2009). Do types of collaboration change citation? Collaboration and citation patterns of South African science publications. Scientometrics, 81(1), 177–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dar-Zen Chen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Huang, MH., Dong, HR. & Chen, DZ. The unbalanced performance and regional differences in scientific and technological collaboration in the field of solar cells. Scientometrics 94, 423–438 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0755-0

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-012-0755-0

Keywords

Navigation