Patterns and impact of collaboration in China’s social sciences: cross-database comparisons between CSSCI and SSCI

This study quantitatively analyzes the patterns and impact of collaboration at author and country levels in China’s social sciences from 1998 to 2017. Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) and Social Sciences Citation Index (SSCI) are combined as data sources to show a comprehensive picture of collaboration in China’s social sciences, and to compare the differences in the way Chinese social scientists work when publishing nationally and internationally. Results show that there are huge differences in patterns and impact of collaboration between China’s national and international publications in social sciences. Specifically, non-collaboration dominates in China’s CSSCI papers while collaboration dominates in China’s SSCI papers; two-authored is the main form of collaboration in China’s CSSCI papers but the teamwork of three or more authors is the main form in China’s SSCI papers; few of China’s CSSCI papers are published in international collaboration but Sino-foreign cooperation is very common in China’s SSCI papers; collaboration benefits citations of China’s SSCI papers in all disciplines but international collaboration doesn’t work well for citations of China’s CSSCI papers. Besides, similarities between China’s national and international publications can also be observed, e.g., disciplines more cooperative in China’s CSSCI papers are also those more cooperative in China’s SSCI papers; the top ten countries collaborate with China in CSSCI and SSCI are the same, and the USA accounts for about half of Sino-foreign collaborations in both CSSCI and SSCI. Finally, the usage of bibliometric databases and possible reasons for collaboration differences are discussed.