R&D collaboration networks of Chinese universities in medical field: An empirical analysis based on informetrics

Aims: This study aims to profile the R&D collaboration networks of Chinese top universities in medical field and to provide references for facilitating university cooperation and academic development. Methods: (1) Select 59 university representatives in medical research field as samples; (2) Retrieve co-publication data between universities from CNKI (China National Knowledge Infrastructure) in general and specific research fields, such as, “Pharmacy”, “Traditional Chinese Medicine”, “Stomatology” and “Clinical Medicine”, respectively; (3) Construct the collaboration networks of Chinese top universities in medical research field by informetrics tools based on Social Network Analysis, Netdraw and Ucinet. Results: (1) The collaboration between Chinese universities appeals to be influenced by geographic and industrial factors. (2) Comprehensive universities and professional ones perform totally different in the general and branched academic fields. (3) The collaboration dependence among universities is related to their academic capability during cooperation. Conclusion: Through the R&D network visualization, the results are discussed in four aspects of the collaboration - location, industrialization, centrality and dependence. Based on their own features, both comprehensive and professional universities can pinpoint the direction and objective of research.