The life sciences in German–Chinese cooperation: an institutional-level co-publication analysis

This paper analyses the scientific cooperation between German and Chinese institutions in the field of the life sciences on the basis of co-publications published between 2007 and 2011 in Web of Science covered sources. After analyzing the global output of publications in the life sciences, and identifying China’s most important international partners on country level, this study focuses on a network and cluster analysis of German–Chinese co-publications on an institutional level. Cleaning and standardizing all German and Chinese addresses, a total of 531 German and 700 Chinese institutions were identified that co-published together in the period under analysis. Disaggregating the institutes of Chinese Academy of Sciences made it possible to obtain more meaningful information on existing co-publication structures. Using VOSviewer the German–Chinese collaboration network in the life sciences is visualized and clusters of similar institutions identified. The seven most important clusters of German–Chinese co-publications partners are briefly described providing background information for funding agencies such as the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research or researchers in the life sciences, who wish to establish collaborations with German or Chinese institutions.