Ho Tung Manh, Nguyen Ha Viet, Vuong Thu-Trang, Dam Quang-Minh, Pham Hiep-Hung, Vuong Quan-Hoang
Institute of Philosophy , Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, Hanoi , 100000, Vietnam.
Centre for Interdisciplinary Social Research, Western University Hanoi (ĐH Thành Tây), Hanoi, 100000, Vietnam.
F1000Res. 2017 Aug 24;6:1559. doi: 10.12688/f1000research.12404.1. eCollection 2017.
Collaboration is a common occurrence among Vietnamese scientists; however, insights into Vietnamese scientific collaborations have been scarce. On the other hand, the application of social network analysis in studying science collaboration has gained much attention all over the world. The technique could be employed to explore Vietnam's scientific community. This paper employs network theory to explore characteristics of a network of 412 Vietnamese social scientists whose papers can be found indexed in the Scopus database. Two basic network measures, density and clustering coefficient, were taken, and the entire network was studied in comparison with two of its largest components. The networks connections are very sparse, with a density of only 0.47%, while the clustering coefficient is very high (58.64%). This suggests an inefficient dissemination of information, knowledge, and expertise in the network. Secondly, the disparity in levels of connection among individuals indicates that the network would easily fall apart if a few highly-connected nodes are removed. Finally, the two largest components of the network were found to differ from the entire networks in terms of measures and were both led by the most productive and well-connected researchers. High clustering and low density seems to be tied to inefficient dissemination of expertise among Vietnamese social scientists, and consequently low scientific output. Also low in robustness, the network shows the potential of an intellectual elite composed of well-connected, productive, and socially significant individuals.
合作在越南科学家之间很常见；然而，对越南科学合作的深入了解却很少。另一方面，社会网络分析在研究科学合作中的应用在全球受到了广泛关注。该技术可用于探索越南的科学界。本文运用网络理论来探究412名越南社会科学家网络的特征，这些科学家的论文可在Scopus数据库中检索到。采用了两个基本的网络指标，即密度和聚类系数，并将整个网络与其两个最大的组成部分进行了比较研究。网络连接非常稀疏，密度仅为0.47%，而聚类系数非常高（58.64%）。这表明网络中信息、知识和专业技能的传播效率低下。其次，个体之间连接水平的差异表明，如果移除一些连接紧密的节点，网络很容易瓦解。最后，发现网络的两个最大组成部分在指标方面与整个网络不同，且均由产出最多、联系最紧密的研究人员主导。高聚类和低密度似乎与越南社会科学家之间专业技能传播效率低下相关，进而导致科研产出较低。该网络的稳健性也较低，显示出由联系紧密、多产且具有社会影响力的个体组成的知识精英群体的潜力。
