On the Sustainability of Co-Authoring Behaviors in Vietnamese Social Sciences: A Preliminary Analysis of Network Data

Abstract

Abstract:The topic of sustainability has mostly been tied to economic development and environmental protection, yet not much attention has been paid to the need for high problem-solving capacity as this underlines both issues. One of the most straightforward ways to improve problem-solving capacity is to nurture 'productive and enduring', i.e., sustainable, scientific communities. The study examines the co-authoring behaviors of 412 Vietnamese social scientists over the 2008-2017 period via social network analysis to determine if these researchers have formed sustainable scientific communities, using Scopus data. The dataset provides an insightful look into the predominant form of collaboration, i.e., co-authorship, within the Vietnamese social science research communities. Through basic network metrics such as density and clustering coefficient, the study hypothesizes that the socially sustainable research communities are those with low clustering and high density. As any scholar's position in a network can be specified by three quantities: the number of publications, connections, and years in research, the distance metrics from the most productive to the rest are computed and compared. The study hypothesizes that if the distance is too large; it reflects the socially unsustainable situation in the network. The results indicate that certain level of social unsustainability exists in social sciences groups in Vietnam. Though the results are only indicative, it has opened up a fertile space for future inquiry into this matter.

The (In)Significance of Socio-Demographic Factors as Possible Determinants of Vietnamese Social Scientists’ Contribution-Adjusted Productivity: Preliminary Results from 2008–2017 Scopus Data

“…These questions give rise to the need for understanding the upcoming acculturation process both within academia and beyond [39,40]. In the Vietnamese context alone, Ho et al found the possibility of a research network to be socially unsustainable due to the big gap between the most productive researcher and the remaining members of his or her network [44]. This kind of study allows local researchers to grasp their own academic landscape, thereby improving their collaboration, as well as helping to inform policy-makers.…”

Research as a Base for Sustainable Development of Universities: Using the Delphi Method to Explore Factors Affecting International Publishing among Vietnamese Academic Staff

“…Vuong and his associates are among the most active in this field. Using data extracted from the Scopus database in conjunction with data from local sources such as university websites, this research team has produced a series of publications (e.g., see [3,[29][30][31][32][33] ) about the research outputs of Vietnamese social scientists and related factors.…”

“…The second part of the survey included 13 five-point Likert scale items pertaining to 13 factors affecting international publishing (see Table 3). These items were developed based on previous studies relating to our topic, including Pham and Hayden [34]; Chang and Chow [24]; Li [25]; Vuong et al [3]; Ho et al [29]; Pho and Tran [4]; Vuong and Tran [32]. The third part of the survey was composed of two open-ended questions.…”

How scientific research changes the Vietnamese higher education landscape: Evidence from social sciences and humanities between 2008 and 2019

“…On a smaller scale, one such project of data gathering and storage was the Network of Vietnamese Scientists in Social Sciences and Humanities Project (https://sshpa.com). The result is rather significant: data extracted from this project had been utilized in seven publications (see Ho et al, 2017a;Ho et al, 2017b;Ho et al, 2017c;Vuong et al, 2017;Vuong et al, 2018c;Vuong et al, 2019c;Vuong et al, 2018a).…”