The Role of Chinese-American Scientists in China-US Scientific Collaboration: A Study in Nanotechnology

TL;DR

This study analyzes how Chinese-American scientists influence China-US nanotechnology collaboration, highlighting their central role and the impact of Chinese policies on fostering international scientific partnerships.

Contribution

It provides a detailed bibliometric and social network analysis of Chinese-American scientists' role in China-US nanotech collaboration, revealing their network centrality and policy effects.

Findings

Chinese-American scientists have high betweenness centrality in collaboration networks.

Most China-US nanotech collaboration occurs between Chinese and Chinese-American scientists.

Chinese government policies significantly promote overseas expert recruitment and collaboration.

Abstract

In this paper, we use bibliometric methods and social network analysis to analyze the pattern of China-US scientific collaboration on individual level in nanotechnology. Results show that Chinese-American scientists have been playing an important role in China-US scientific collaboration. We find that China-US collaboration in nanotechnology mainly occurs between Chinese and Chinese-American scientists. In the co-authorship network, Chinese-American scientists tend to have higher betweenness centrality. Moreover, the series of polices implemented by the Chinese government to recruit oversea experts seems to contribute a lot to China-US scientific collaboration.