A comparative study on communication structures of Chinese journals in the social sciences

[Tom Wilson]

I suspect that the problem lies in the communist ideology - it was the same
in the days of the Soviet Union - Marxist/Leninism is presumed to be the
only philosophy/methodology needed to explain social life and for a social
scientist to explore different avenues was positively dangerous. With the
collapse of communism in Russia, social scientists there and in the former
dependencies are now exploring Western social philosophy and, to a certain
extent, anything Marxist is considered suspect - a complete reversal of the
previous situation.

Given the tight control of society in China, I imagine that looking beyond
Marxism for social explanation would also be considered suspect.

Tom Wilson

On 22 February 2010 14:33, Zhou, Ping <Ping.Zhou at econ.kuleuven.be> wrote:

>  Dear David,
>
>
>
> The "stagnation" is concluded based on two types of comparison: comparison
> with natural and life sciences domestically and the specialization
> comparison between Chinese and international communities.
>
>
>
> Domestic comparison shows that China's world share of publications in the
> social sciences lags dramatically behind that in the natural and life
> sciences (see Figure 1 of the paper).
>
>
>
> International comparison shows that China is less specialized than its
> international counterparts. We argue that specialization links to maturity
> of a discipline; less specialization may lead to slower progress.
>
>
>
> The full text of the paper can be retrieved at:
>
> http://arxiv.org/abs/1002.3590
>
>
>
> With kind regards,
>
>
>
> Ping Zhou
>
>
>
>
>
> *From:* ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [mailto:
> SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] *On Behalf Of *David Wojick
> *Sent:* Monday, February 22, 2010 12:57 PM
> *To:* SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
> *Subject:* Re: [SIGMETRICS] A comparative study on communication
> structures of Chinese journals in the social sciences
>
>
>
> Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
> http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html Dear Ping Zhou,
>
>
>
> What do you mean by "stagnation" and how are you measuring it? This seems
> like an odd conclusion to draw from a citation analysis.
>
>
> David
>
> On Feb 22, 2010, *Zhou, Ping* <Ping.Zhou at ECON.KULEUVEN.BE> wrote:
>
> Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
> http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html
>
> Title: A comparative study on communication structures of Chinese journals
> in the social sciences
>
> Source: Journal of the American Society for Information Science and
> Technology, forthcoming
>
> Authors: Ping Zhou, Xinning Su, Loet Leydesdorff
>
> Abstract: We argue that the communication structures in the Chinese social
> sciences have not yet been sufficiently reformed. Citation patterns among
> Chinese domestic journals in three subject areas-political science and
> marxism, library and information science, and economics-are compared with
> their counterparts internationally. Like their colleagues in the natural and
> life sciences, Chinese scholars in the social sciences provide fewer
> references to journal publications than their international counterparts;
> like their international colleagues, social scientists provide fewer
> references than natural sciences. The resulting citation networks,
> therefore, are sparse. Nevertheless, the citation structures clearly suggest
> that the Chinese social sciences are far less specialized in terms of
> disciplinary delineations than their international counterparts. Marxism
> studies are more established than political science in China. In terms of
> the impact of the Chinese political system o!
> n academic fields, disciplines closely related to the political system are
> less specialized than those weakly related. In the discussion section, we
> explore reasons that may cause the current stagnation and provide policy
> recommendations.
>
>


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