國際合著中多國隸屬作者論文之研究貢獻類型分析

Abstract

本研究以作者為基本分析單位從事國家層級的科學合作分析，以2009年至2018年間的多國隸屬作者論文作為研究對象，利用作者角色的轉換，分析各國在多國隸屬作者論文的研究貢獻類型，掌握各國在科學合作活動的研究貢獻程度，主要的合作對象與合作型態，以及各國論文在國家多樣性、主導程度、與學術影響力之間的相關性。 在論文發表趨勢方面，多國隸屬作者論文成為國際合作研究中快速成長的發表型態，且論文中多國隸屬作者的數量正在逐漸增加。多國隸屬作者論文多分布在大型合作與高度跨領域的學術領域，也多刊載於開放取用或mega-journal的期刊。中國在多國隸屬作者論文的年成長率居全球之冠，其論文占國際合著論文的比例也明顯高於世界各國，顯示作者隸屬於多國的現象在中國相對普遍。 在研究貢獻類型方面，主要國家在主導型與指導型論文皆為正成長趨勢，顯見學者擔任第一兼通訊作者，或擔任通訊作者的頻率逐年增加，而中國在主導型、指導型、首要型論文的占比皆為全球第1，顯示中國在國際合作研究中逐漸發揮關鍵作用，此現象與作者署名的規範與獎勵措施息息相關，值得進一步探討。 在合作分析方面，採用多國隸屬作者論文的分析結果可以突顯科研規模小或政治開放程度低的合作對象，但是大者恆大的現象仍然存在。主要國家的論文合作型態以分屬於雙邊的單國隸屬作者為主，只有中國的合著論文，其雙邊合掛作者的比例皆高於其他各國。 在學術影響力方面，本研究主要國家在多國隸屬作者論文與國際合著論文的表現是相當的，但是論文中多國隸屬作者的數量愈多則學術影響力愈高。在各種研究貢獻類型中，以參與型論文的學術影響力最高、首要型最低。此外，論文的國家多樣性愈高有助於提升學術影響力，但各國的主導程度愈高則無助於論文的品質，只有美國不受影響。 根據研究結果，證實以作者為論文分析單位的研究，確實增進科學合作研究的深度與廣度。而本研究透過作者角色分析研究人員在論文的研究貢獻類型與貢獻程度，也利用作者隸屬關係瞭解一國的合作夥伴與合作型態，建議可應用上述分析內容於學術評鑑活動中，有別於過往以論文篇數、引用次數、期刊影響係數來評估個人、機構、與國家的表現，可為學術評鑑增加新的評估面向。最後，本研究建議持續關注多國隸屬作者論文在學術發表與學術影響力的變化，掌握世界各國於後疫情時代的學術競合趨勢。

This study takes “author” as the unit of analysis to conduct a country-level research evaluation, which focus on the global publishing trend of multinational authorship papers, the research contribution patterns that derived from the transformation of author roles, main partners and types of collaboration, as well as the correlation between participation diversity, level of dominance, and citation impact in individual countries. The findings reveal that multinational authorship is a growing trend, as well as the increasing number of multinational authors within a paper. China has the highest number of multinational authorship papers among all the studied nations. Meanwhile, multinational authorship papers are mainly published in open access or mega-journals and in large-scale collaborative and highly interdisciplinary research areas. In terms of research contribution patterns, the numbers of the dominant and the supervisory pattern papers continue to increase, while the primary and the contributory pattern papers are gradually decreasing. However, China has a high proportion of dominant, supervisory and primary pattern papers, which suggests that China gradually plays a critical role in international scientific collaboration. The trend may be closely related to the current norms and incentives of authorship and deserves further exploration. Regarding the country collaboration, the study on multinational authorship papers helps to highlight those with less scientific capacity or political openness in the top 10 partner list, while the big players remain dominant in the scene. As for the type of collaboration, most of multiple authorship papers are single-national authorship, except China where the amount of bilateral co-affiliated authorship is significantly greater than the other countries. For citation impact, this study finds that multinational authorship papers are no different from international collaborative papers in all studied countries. Nonetheless, the more multinational authors in a paper, the higher the citation impact. In relation to research contribution patterns, the contributory pattern papers show the highest citation impact, and the primary pattern papers rank the lowest. In addition, a positive correlation between country diversity in a paper and citation impact is observed. Meanwhile, the higher dominance of a country in a paper, the lower the citation impact. Noteworthy that the U.S. is the only exemption in this study. In conclusion, the research findings suggest that using “author” as the unit of analysis can enhance the depth and breadth of scientific collaborative research. The study utilizes author roles to understand an author’s research contribution pattern, as well as using the author affiliations to discern the types of collaboration between different countries. Therefore, this study recommends that the analysis of the research contribution patterns can be applied as a new research performance indicator for countries or university departments in academic evaluation activities. Different from the widely used evaluation indicators, such as research productivity, number of citations and impact factors. Meanwhile, we should continue to be aware of the changes in multinational authorship and research competition and collaboration between countries in the post-pandemic era.