research networks for innovation in east asia – who does the future belong to 27/09/2012 research...

Research networks for innovation in East Asia – who does the future belong to 27/09/2012

Research Collaboration in Selected ASEAN Countries

Dr Janet IlievaSeptember 27 – 28, 2012Hong Kong

Research carried out withSciVal Content & Analytics

27/09/2012


Outline

“The scientific world is becoming increasingly interconnected. Collaboration enhances quality of research and improves efficiency and effectiveness. It responds to global challenges.” (The Royal Society, (2011), Knowledge, networks and nations)

1. The major research nations have more than doubled their international collaborations in 2010 than 10 years ago (5 times greater for China); if the trend continues China would match the US in terms of international collaborations

2. Growing role of international research - increasing rates of international collaboration - 45% in the UK and Germany, 50% in the Netherlands and over 60% in Switzerland

3. Changing research landscape in South East Asia: what are the opportunities for international collaboration?

4. Some early findings from a study on the research capacity in selected ASEAN countries


International research collaboration for impactInternationally produced research is most cited: 80% of the variation in citation per document across the top most productive countries is “explained” by their international collaboration rate (British Council (2012), “Shape of things to come: higher education global trends and emerging opportunities to 2020”)

Collaboration rate and citation per document (2010)

RU

BR

BE

KR

CHNL

ESJP

FR

CN

UK

US

y = 3.445x + 0.1677R2 = 0.8021

0.00

0.50

1.00

1.50

2.00

2.50

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70%

International Collaboration Rate

Cit

ati

on

pe

r d

oc

um

en

t 2

01

0

Source: Scopus, Oxford Economics and British Council Analysis


International research collaborations1. The most cited research is produced in multilateral collaborations

2. Citation per article increases with increase in the number of collaborating countries

3. Three international collaboration

groups (British Council, 2012)*:

• Volume leaders: US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, China, Japan

• High citation impact: Switzerland, US, Netherlands, UK, Sweden

• Emerging countries with growing importance: China, Malaysia, India, Brazil, Saudi Arabia

Citations per article vs. number of collaborating countries

Source: Royal Society (2011), Knowledge, networks and nations, p.59

*British Council (2012), “Shape of things to come: higher education global trends and emerging opportunities to 2020”, http://ihe.britishcouncil.org/educationintelligence/shape-of-things-to-come


Growing prominence of research in emerging economies

Marginson (2012)* argues that:

• at present 49 countries maintain higher education systems that publish more than 1000 journal papers per year in science and social science (as collated by Thomson Reuters)

• the threshold of 1000 journal papers is a useful indicator for the presence of local research and doctoral capacity

• this number of 49 countries is an increase of almost 30% in the number of countries with research capacity in just 15 years

*[1] Marginson, S. (2012), Future paths of international higher education, EAIE Conference, http://www.eaie.org/blog/future-paths-of-international-higher-education/


Research collaborations in ASEAN – opportunities and challenges

• Research carried out with SciVal Content & Analytics

• Two-fold research objective: – analysis of the research capacity in selected ASEAN countries in key subject areas

– Identify key universities and their international networks (main research collaborators at institutional level)

• Selected ASEAN countries: Laos, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Myanmar and the Philippines

• Using the OECD 6 Subject area classification:– Medical Sciences, Natural Sciences, Agricultural Sciences, Engineering &

Technology, Social Sciences & Humanities

• This bibliometric analysis is based on the Scopus database

• Most analysis is based on the past 5 years: 2007 – 2011


Malaysia and Thailand produce the largest amount of scientific output

• Malaysia and Thailand are the most productive of the selected countries. Indonesia, Viet

Nam and Philippines form the middle section

• Fastest growing rates for Malaysia (5 yr CAGR of 38%) and Indonesia (5 yr CAGR of 24%)

7


Varied output for the selected ASEAN countries

• Malaysia overtook Thailand in 2008 and is the most productive ASEAN country after Singapore

• Even the least productive of the selected countries show above average output growth:

- Cambodia 7%

- Philippines 11%

- Myanmar 15%

- Laos 18%

- Viet Nam 19%

As a benchmark, the world 5yr CAGR is just under 3%.

8


Citation share

• Thailand and Malaysia have the highest citation share

• Indonesia, Viet Nam and Philippines form the middle section, and citation shares for Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia are low

• The picture emerging from citation data is very similar to the one emerging from article output data (see previous slide)

• Malaysia has overtaken Thailand in output, but in citation share Thailand is still ahead (although growth is stronger in Malaysia, indicating that in a few years the picture will be the same as the previous slide)

9


High relative citation impact for low output countries

• Relative Citation Impact is each country’s citations per article (impact) divided by the average impact. With low output numbers, this metric becomes unreliable

• Above average impact is only realised in countries with extremely low output, such as Cambodia, Laos. With higher output, it is difficult to maintain this level of impact and (Viet Nam, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia).

10


Lower international collaboration rate for high output countries• Inverse relationship between countries’ research output and collaboration rate (-0.58)• Malaysia and Thailand have the highest output and lower international collaboration rate • With increasing output, countries’ share of internationally co-authored articles is showing

a slight downward trend• All countries have collaboration rate above the world average. The UK’s percentage in

2011 was 46.1% while China’s percentage in 2011 was 13.6%.

11


High international collaboration rate for low output countries

• Laos and Cambodia have relatively high percentages of internationally co-authored articles and seem to rely on this collaboration substantially

• Myanmar shows much variation (between 82% and 48%), due to lower output numbers12


Impact (citations per article) of internationally co-authored papers (all subjects) 2007-2011

13

Citations per article: international vs. national co-authorship

National International

Thailand 1.0 2.2

Malaysia 1.0 1.9

Indonesia 1.0 6.0

Viet Nam 1.0 2.9

Philippines 1.0 4.9

Laos 1.0 1.9

Cambodia 1.0 0.8

Myanmar 1.0 2.8


Most countries have highest output and citation impact in agricultural sciences

Impact (citations per article) of internationally co-authored papers in agricultural sciences (2007-2011):

Citations per article fold increase over national co-authorshipNational International

Thailand 1.0 1.6Malaysia 1.0 1.1Indonesia 1.0 2.8Viet Nam 1.0 2.8Philippines 1.0 4.1Laos 1.0 n/aCambodia 1.0 n/aMyanmar 1.0 n/a


Observations

• The selected ASEAN countries have a strong and above average output growth in output. The international collaboration rate is inversely related to the output growth

• Strongest research output growth in Malaysia (5 yr CAGR of 38%) and Indonesia (5 yr CAGR of 24%)

• The high output countries Malaysia and Thailand also have a larger citation share, however their relative citation impact is below the world average. These countries are increasing diversifying their subject areas

• The middle group Viet Nam, Indonesia and the Philippines have lower output and have below average impact. Strongest focus on agricultural sciences

• The low output countries Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia. Laos and Cambodia have above world average impact but this is unreliable due to low output numbers. Due to low output numbers, it is difficult to define their subject focus

• Next steps – identify strong universities and their international research networks


Wider implications:

• International collaborations:

– growing importance of multilateral collaborations (vs. bi-lateral). Is there role for wider ASEAN involvement in collaborative research?

– choosing the right partners for impact now and investing in research partnerships for the future (long-term investment)

– Funding schemes need to support, multilateral research collaborations at all levels: institutional, national and supranational

• Greater role for UNESCO and other international organisations in capturing research trends and flow of scientists/researchers – assessment of impact of research and vitality of the research environment across countries


Further country specific information on research output and citation impact


Malaysia

Activity Index - share of total articles relative to the world’s share of articles

Relative Citation Impact - citations per article divided by the average impact in each subject


Malaysia (Cont’d)

Key Findings

• In earlier years, Malaysia showed strong scientific focus on agricultural sciences, which shifted to also include engineering and technology

• Most productive collaborations in agricultural sciences are with Japan, US, Iran, UK, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Australia, India, Thailand, France. – However, highest impact results are from collaboration (n>10) with the

US, France, Thailand, Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, Philippines and Germany


Thailand

20




Thailand

Key Findings:

• Thailand’s scientific output shows increasing focus on agricultural sciences and medical and health sciences (although decreasing)

• Most productive collaborations in agricultural sciences are with the US, Japan, Australia, Germany, UK, France, China, Canada, Netherlands & South Korea

– However, highest impact results are from collaboration (n>10) with Canada, the Netherlands, South Korea South Africa, Ireland, Denmark, India, Belgium, Italy and Singapore

• Most productive collaborations in medical and health Sciences are with US, Japan, UK, Australia, China, France, Canada, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland

– However, highest impact results from collaboration (n>10) with Hungary, Finland, Turkey, Mexico, Hong Kong, Poland, Brazil, Israel, Spain and Norway.


Indonesia

22




Indonesia (Cont’d)

Key Findings:

• Still heavy, however decreasing, focus on agricultural sciences

• Most collaborations in agricultural sciences are with Japan, US, Australia, Malaysia, Netherlands, Germany, UK, Thailand, France and the Philippines.

– However, highest impact results (n>10) are with the US, Philippines, France, Switzerland, Italy, New Zealand, Denmark, Canada, Thailand and Germany

• Most productive collaborations in medical and health sciences are with the US, Japan, UK, Australia, China, France, Canada, Germany, South Korea and Switzerland

– However, highest impact results (n>10) are with the US, UK, Canada, China, Philippines, Viet Nam, Denmark, the Netherlands, Thailand and Italy


The Philippines

• The output has dominant focus on agricultural sciences with above world average impact in that area.

• Close to world average output in Medical and Health Sciences with impact also above world average.

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Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar

• Viet Nam’s profile is slightly different: numbers are higher but the output is dominated by natural sciences with over 60% of total output published in that area. However, low relative impact

• Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have low output, making an activity index or relative impact analysis unreliable

• Over the last years, Cambodia consistently publishes most of its articles in medical and health sciences.

• Laos and Myanmar publish a handful of articles in each subject area, with small differences between the areas.

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* Even though Scopus is rapidly increasing its coverage in Humanities, the fact that other sources such as books play such an important role

in this subject area means we need to interpret these numbers with caution.


Top collaborating countries for Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos Number of co-authored papers and their share (2007-2011)

26

LaosThailand 102 22.9%Japan 92 20.6%UK 80 17.9%US 68 15.3%Australia 64 14.4%France 62 13.9%

MyanmarJapan 83 19.4%

US 43 10.0%Thailand 39 9.1%Australia 32 7.5%India 22 5.1%

UK 20 4.7%

CambodiaUS 170 23.8%Thailand 124 17.4%France 121 17.0%Japan 109 15.3%UK 91 12.8%Australia 87 12.2%

Thailand, Japan, the US, UK and Australia appear to be key collaborating partners

research networks for innovation in east asia – who does the future belong to 27/09/2012 research...

Documents

research networks

research capacity

cited research

produced research

quality of research

growing prominence of

major research nations

presence of local research