International Co-authorship in Academic Journals: A Chinese Perspective on Motivations, Benefits and Barriers

By Jo Royle and Louisa Coles.

Published by The International Journal of the Book

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Article: Print	$US10.00
Article: Electronic	$US5.00

There is wide recognition of China’s increased international visibility in terms of scholarly research publication. This paper presents a contextualised exploration of the subject which reflects the complexity of the issues involved.

A brief overview of the authors’ recent research which explores the subject using a bibliometric approach is provided. This research reported on patterns of Chinese international co-authorship as observed in a sample of 37,526 articles drawn from journals published by Elsevier. Fluctuations in trends as related to potential influences such as subject area, journal impact factor and article type were observed and set in context of worldwide patterns and trends. It was noted that journal publishers are starting to recognise the potential mutual benefit that could be gained through greater support for Chinese academics wishing to publish in international journals.

The paper focuses on a second research project which, inspired by questions raised in the first explores the international collaboration and co-authorship from the perspective of Chinese academics. Issues discussed include: motivations and facilitators to collaboration and co-authorship such as funding initiatives, greater prevalence of ICTs and pooling of expertise and equipment; barriers to success such as language and cultural issues; benefits of international publication in terms of increased visibility, greater impact and widening of networks.

Keywords:	Author Perspective, International Co-authorship, International Collaboration, Patterns, Barriers, Motivations, Benefits

The International Journal of the Book, Volume 4, Issue 4, pp.151-160. Article: Print (Spiral Bound). Article: Electronic (PDF File; 853.928KB).

Jo Royle

Senior Lecturer, Department of Communication, , Aberdeen Business School, Robert Gordon University, UK

Jo Royle is Senior Lecturer and Subject Leader for Communication and Publishing within the Aberdeen Business School at the Robert Gordon University and is Undergraduate Programme Manager in the field. She lectures on Electronic Publishing and Consumer Publishing at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels; and has supervised and carried out research in these areas, and gained related external funding from sources including the Arts and Humanities Research Board and British National Bibliography Research Fund. In particular this research has focused on the role of online branding for consumer publishers and change management issues associated with multimedia publishing for children. She gained internal funding from the RGU Research Development Initiative and this has been focused on research in branding and the community in bookselling. Research funding from Elsevier has underpinned a recent project on international Chinese co-authorship. She was previously Editorial Manager of an independent consumer publishing house.

Louisa Coles

Research Assistant, Communication and Languages, The Robert Gordon University, UK

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