Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Does "Birds Of A Feather Flock Together" Matter: Evidence From A Longitudinal Study On The Us-China Scientific Collaboration, Li Tang

Li Tang

No abstract provided.

Effects Of International Collaboration And Knowledge Moderation On China’S Nanotechnology Research Impacts, Li Tang, Philip Shapira

Li Tang

Purpose – Recent studies report that China is becoming a leading nation in the quantity of scientific

output, including in the emerging field of nanotechnology. In nanotechnology, bibliometric measures

based on citations also indicate improvements in the research impacts of Chinese scientific papers. The

purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of international collaboration, including the role of

knowledge moderation through Chinese researchers who collaborate in both domestic and

international scientific cooperation, on the impacts of Chinese nanotechnology research publications.

Design/methodology/approach – Using a nanotechnology publication dataset, bibliometric

analysis and statistical testing are adopted to explore the issues …

Visualizing Nanotechnology Research In Canada: Evidence From Publication Activities, 1990-2009, Guangyuan Hu, Stephen Carley, Li Tang*

Li Tang

Over the last two decades the scientific community has witnessed unprecedented growth of nanotechnology research in Canada. Although recent studies have shown that Canada consistently maintains a position in the first tier of productive countries in terms of its share of the world’s nano-publications, a number of key questions remain unanswered. Using a unique nano-related publication dataset, this paper combines bibliometric analysis and science overlay mapping to visualize the ‘invisible college’ of Canadian nano research. The present analysis finds that the rapid growth of nanotechnology research in Canada is, for the most part, externally driven. In recent years, research content …

Ssrn As An Initial Revolution In Academic Knowledge Aggregation And Dissemination, David Bray, Sascha Vitzthum, Benn Konsynski

Sascha Vitzthum

Within this paper we consider our results of using the Social Science Research Network (SSRN) over a period of 18 months to distribute our working papers to the research community. Our experiences have been quite positive, with SSRN serving as a platform both to inform our colleagues about our research as well as inform us about related research (through email and telephoned conversations of colleagues who discovered our paper on SSRN). We then discuss potential future directions for SSRN to consider, and how SSRN might well represent an initial revolution in 21st century academic knowledge aggregation and dissemination. Our paper …

Towards Self-Organizing, Smart Business Networks: Let’S Create ‘Life’ From Inert Information, David Bray, Benn Konsynski

David A. Bray

We review three different theories that can inform how researchers can determine the performance of smart business networks, to include: (1) the Theory of Evolution, (2) the Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm, and (3) research insights into computers and cognition. We suggest that each of these theories demonstrate that to be generally perceived as smart, an organism needs to be self-organizing, communicative, and tool-making. Consequentially, to determine the performance of a smart business network, we suggest that researchers need to determine the degree to which it is self-organizing, communicative, and tool-making. We then relate these findings to the Internet and …

Functional Explanation And Metaphysical Individualism, Justin Schwartz

Justin Schwartz

A number of (present or former) analytical Marxists, such as Jon Elster, have argued that functional explanation has almost no place in the social sciences. (Although the discussion is framed in terms of a debate among analytical Marxists, the point is quite general, and Marxism is used for illustrative purposes.) Functional explanation accounts for what is to be explained by reference to its function; thus, sighted organism have eyes because eyes enable them to see. Elster and other critics of functional explanation argue that this pattern of explanation is inconsistent with "methodological individualism," the idea, as they understand it, that …