Bibliometric Analysis Asia-Pacific Research Area ... - JuSER

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countries is much larger than in the case of the ten selected countries. In the case of the
countries in South-East Asia, the network as a whole becomes much denser in 2007. In the
case of the network of selected comparative countries, the relationships between the countries
have only become denser for countries in the same geographical region: a pronounced increase
was determined between France and Germany, Argentina and Brazil, Japan and South Korea,
and Ukraine and Russia. The increase in ties between Russia and France and Germany,
however, cannot be explained geographically. A role is probably played by the fact that Russia
was the only country whose output decreased between 1998 and 2007.
Comparing the networks reveals that the international cooperation between countries within a
research area is much stronger than between selected countries. We can therefore conclude
that an Asian-Pacific research area has emerged from a bibliometric perspective within the last
ten years. By adding further data and information from the scientific environment of these
countries, this conclusion based on bibliometric data can be used to evaluate whether a
research area that is not just based on the evaluation of scientific publications has actually
developed between the countries.
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