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A multi-level network analysis of web-citations among the world’s universities

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Abstract

This paper describes the results of a multi-level network analysis of web-citations among the 1,000 universities with the greatest presence on the world wide web. Using data from January 2011, it describes the web-citation network of the world’s universities and ascertains the antecedent factors that determine its structure. At the university level, the network is composed of ten groups, and the most central universities are mainly from the United States. The factors that predict the structure of the network are, whether or not the universities are in the same country, the language of instruction, the size and excellence of the institution (university ranking and the number of Nobel Prizes received), if they offer doctoral degrees, and the infrastructure of its country. Physical distance was not a determinant of the network’s structure. At the nation-state level, international connections among a nation’s universities are composed of a single cluster with the United States, United Kingdom and Germany at the center. The structure of the international network may be predicted by the countries’ overall hyperlink connections, international co-authorships, student flows and the number of Nobel Prizes won by its citizen.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Loet Leydesdorff, Jessie Hammond, Haley Pleasant, and Jeanette Ruiz without whom this paper would not have been possible. The corresponding author acknowledges a partial support from the SSK (Social Science Korea) Program funded by National Research Foundation of South Korea; NRF-2010-330-B00232.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Communication, University of California, Davis, CA, USA

    George A. Barnett & Ke Jiang

  2. Department of Media & Information, Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan-si, South Korea

    Han Woo Park

  3. Chengdu Branch of the National Science Library, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chengdu, People’s Republic of China

    Chuan Tang

  4. The Cybermetrics Lab, National Research Council (CSIC), Madrid, Spain

    Isidro F. Aguillo

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  1. George A. Barnett
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  2. Han Woo Park
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  3. Ke Jiang
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Correspondence to Han Woo Park.

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Barnett, G.A., Park, H.W., Jiang, K. et al. A multi-level network analysis of web-citations among the world’s universities. Scientometrics 99, 5–26 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1070-0

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