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The Scientometric Measurement of Interdisciplinarity and Diversity in the Research Portfolios of Chinese Universities

Lin Zhang
Lin Zhang
 and 
Loet Leydesdorff
Loet Leydesdorff
   | Jun 24, 2021
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Article Category: Research Paper
Published Online: Jun 24, 2021
Page range: 13 - 35
Received: Jan 17, 2021
Accepted: Jun 01, 2021
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2021-0027
Keywords
© 2021 Lin Zhang et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Figure 1

Science overlay map of the publications with an address at Tsinghua University. [Note: The base map of disciplines was developed from the matrix of 227 × 227 cells of WoS categories. This was generated on the basis of direct citation counting and normalized with the cosine function (Carley et al. 2017).
Science overlay map of the publications with an address at Tsinghua University. [Note: The base map of disciplines was developed from the matrix of 227 × 227 cells of WoS categories. This was generated on the basis of direct citation counting and normalized with the cosine function (Carley et al. 2017).

Figure 2

The science overlay map of the publications associated with Stanford University. [Note: The base map of disciplines was developed from the matrix of 227 × 227 cells of WoS categories. This was generated on the basis of direct citation counting and normalized with the cosine function (Carley et al. 2017).
The science overlay map of the publications associated with Stanford University. [Note: The base map of disciplines was developed from the matrix of 227 × 227 cells of WoS categories. This was generated on the basis of direct citation counting and normalized with the cosine function (Carley et al. 2017).

Number of publications associated with the 44 universities in our sample (2017–2019); in decreasing order.

No. University name Papers No. University name Papers
1 Harvard Univ 76,144 23 Northeastern Univ 14,893
2 Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ 37,016 24 Beihang Univ 14,484
3 Zhejiang Univ 35,204 25 Dalian Univ of Technology 13,861
4 Tsinghua Univ 32,681 26 Zhengzhou Univ 12,993
5 Stanford Univ 32,428 27 Northwestern Polytechnical Univ 12,497
6 Peking Univ 30,160 28 Chongqing Univ 12,451
7 Sun Yat-Sen Univ 26,823 29 Univ of Electronic S & T of China 12,334
8 Huazhong Univ of S & T 24,822 30 Xiamen Univ 11,607
9 Fudan Univ 24,475 31 Beijing Institute of Technology 11,206
10 Sichuan Univ 23,259 32 Beijing Normal Univ 10,043
11 Central South Univ 22,870 33 Nankai Univ 9970
12 Xi’an Jiaotong Univ 22,698 34 Hunan Univ 9811
13 Shandong Univ 21,601 35 Lanzhou Univ 9156
14 Jilin Univ 21,068 36 China Agricultural Univ 8762
15 Harbin Institute of Technology 20,750 37 Northwest A & F Univ 7817
16 Univ of S & T of China 20,747 38 East China Normal Univ 7610
17 Wuhan Univ 19,748 39 National Univ of Defense Technology 6601
18 Nanjing Univ 19,246 40 Ocean Univ of China 6390
19 Tianjin Univ 17,778 41 Renmin Univ of China 2946
20 Tongji Univ 17,226 42 Yunnan Univ 2835
21 Southeast Univ 16,959 43 Xinjiang Univ 1979
22 South China Univ of Technology 15,595 44 Minzu Univ of China 760

Factor analysis of the interdisciplinarity and diversity indicators (N = 42).

Rotated Component Matrixa
Component
1 2
True RS .881 −.133
Shannon .877 .455
(1-Gini) .862 .456
Simpson .830 .390
Div* .703 .657
Variety .329 .853
Disparity .792

The Indicator scores generated by interd.vb.exe routine.

University DIV* Rank True RS Rank Simpson Rank Shannon Rank Variety Rank Disparity Rank (1-Gini) Rank
Stanford Univ 40.260 1 1.503 15 0.986 1 6.831 1 0.988 1 0.472 23 0.340 1
Sun Yat-Sen Univ 35.754 2 1.549 6 0.983 5 6.663 2 0.945 5 0.474 12 0.314 2
Peking Univ 33.352 3 1.516 13 0.982 7 6.568 4 0.953 3 0.474 15 0.291 4
Zhejiang Univ 33.237 4 1.549 7 0.983 3 6.594 3 0.949 4 0.473 18 0.292 3
Harvard Univ 32.328 5 1.288 39 0.983 6 6.512 7 0.988 1 0.471 25 0.274 7
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ 31.151 6 1.553 5 0.984 2 6.565 5 0.921 9 0.471 26 0.283 5
Sichuan Univ 30.092 7 1.527 12 0.983 4 6.517 6 0.913 11 0.473 19 0.274 6
Wuhan Univ 29.117 8 1.548 8 0.982 9 6.465 8 0.917 10 0.473 16 0.264 8
Northeastern Univ 28.892 9 1.485 18 0.975 24 6.335 15 0.945 5 0.466 37 0.258 10
Fudan Univ 28.102 10 1.457 22 0.979 17 6.361 12 0.929 7 0.468 35 0.254 12
Shandong Univ 27.683 11 1.492 17 0.981 11 6.416 9 0.898 13 0.472 24 0.257 11
East China Normal Univ 27.471 12 1.495 16 0.980 12 6.415 10 0.886 18 0.470 28 0.260 9
Nanjing Univ 26.735 13 1.444 24 0.977 20 6.256 21 0.929 7 0.475 9 0.238 19
Beijing Normal Univ 26.427 14 1.575 4 0.976 22 6.328 16 0.890 16 0.467 36 0.250 13
Xiamen Univ 26.392 15 1.439 25 0.977 18 6.301 19 0.894 14 0.474 13 0.245 16
Tongji Univ 26.286 16 1.538 11 0.979 13 6.341 13 0.894 14 0.471 27 0.246 15
Huazhong Univ of S&T 25.700 17 1.452 23 0.979 15 6.308 18 0.886 18 0.475 10 0.241 18
Central South Univ 25.298 18 1.545 9 0.979 16 6.336 14 0.843 23 0.479 2 0.247 14
Lanzhou Univ 23.959 19 1.513 14 0.981 10 6.362 11 0.815 26 0.472 22 0.245 17
Jilin Univ 23.323 20 1.431 26 0.975 26 6.177 22 0.866 21 0.474 14 0.224 22
Tsinghua Univ 23.253 21 1.371 29 0.975 27 6.120 25 0.913 11 0.470 29 0.213 25
Xi’an Jiaotong Univ 22.879 22 1.409 27 0.975 25 6.128 24 0.890 16 0.472 21 0.214 24
Zhengzhou Univ 21.553 23 1.463 20 0.976 23 6.152 23 0.811 27 0.475 7 0.220 23
Southeast Univ 20.325 24 1.385 28 0.970 33 5.971 29 0.870 20 0.470 30 0.196 28
Renmin Univ 20.323 25 1.458 21 0.979 14 6.277 20 0.748 35 0.457 41 0.234 20
Yunnan Univ 18.896 26 1.540 10 0.982 8 6.314 17 0.681 39 0.469 31 0.233 21
Nankai Univ 18.091 27 1.334 32 0.969 40 5.894 32 0.827 24 0.462 40 0.187 30
Univ of S&T – China 17.782 28 1.303 37 0.968 41 5.797 38 0.850 22 0.477 5 0.172 38
Tianjin Univ 17.466 29 1.296 38 0.970 35 5.852 37 0.819 25 0.475 11 0.177 35
South China Univ of Technol 17.286 30 1.349 31 0.970 36 5.882 33 0.795 28 0.473 20 0.181 31
Chongqing Univ 17.029 31 1.313 34 0.970 34 5.856 36 0.795 28 0.478 3 0.176 36
Hunan Univ 16.958 32 1.307 36 0.973 30 5.913 31 0.772 32 0.480 1 0.180 32
Ocean Univ of China 16.824 33 1.734 1 0.977 21 6.102 26 0.677 40 0.473 17 0.207 26
Dalian Univ of Technol 16.509 34 1.315 33 0.974 29 5.922 30 0.756 34 0.478 4 0.180 33
Harbin Inst of Technology 15.412 35 1.286 40 0.969 38 5.769 39 0.776 31 0.475 8 0.165 39
Beihang Univ 15.007 36 1.311 35 0.970 37 5.762 40 0.780 30 0.465 38 0.163 40
China Agricultural Univ 14.671 37 1.670 3 0.973 31 5.873 35 0.701 37 0.469 34 0.176 37
Northwest A&F Univ 14.040 38 1.681 2 0.972 32 5.881 34 0.665 41 0.469 33 0.177 34
Beijing Inst of Technol 13.944 39 1.269 44 0.969 39 5.728 41 0.724 36 0.475 6 0.159 41
Xinjiang Univ 12.921 40 1.369 30 0.975 28 5.997 28 0.571 42 0.463 39 0.193 29
Univ of Electronic S&T of China 12.847 41 1.281 42 0.950 44 5.428 43 0.768 33 0.448 43 0.147 42
Minzu Univ of China 12.104 42 1.464 19 0.977 19 6.049 27 0.535 44 0.448 42 0.199 27
Northwestern Polytechnical Univ 12.062 43 1.275 43 0.962 42 5.571 42 0.693 38 0.469 32 0.146 43
National Univ of Defense Technol 7.783 44 1.285 41 0.951 43 5.274 44 0.563 43 0.446 44 0.122 44

Spearman's correlations for ranking order generated by Interd.vb.exe (N = 42).

DIV* TRUE RS VARIETY DISPARITY (1 -GINI) SIMPSON SHANNON
DIV*
TRUE RS .563**
VARIETY .926** .323*
DISPARITY .215 −.092 .230
(1 – GINI) .936 .717** .772** .074
SIMPSON .789** .766** .551** .085 .917**
SHANNON .911** .734** .725** 087 .990** .950**

The differences among provided programs.

Routine Name of program required Input Output Other output Website
Interd_vb.exe Interdis.exe *.txt file containing comma-separated variables Interdis.csv Interdis.dbf https://www.leydesdorff.net/software/interdisc.2020/
Syn3_vb.exe Syn3.exe *.txt file containing comma-separated variables synergy.csv synergy.dbf Minus.net; minus.txt; t_edges.dbf, t_nodes.dbf, t123.dbf https://www.leydesdorff.net/software/synergy.triads/
Mode2div.exe .net file (Pajek) format Div_col.dbf https://www.leydesdorff.net/
jcitnetw.exe WoS downloads CR as input for mode2div https://www.leydesdorff.net/software/interdisc/index.htm

Local vs. global disparity using JCR data for 2019.

University DIV* Rank TRUE RS Rank
Stanford Univ 72.956 1 5.488 2
Sun Yat-Sen Univ 68.429 2 4.741 5
Zhejiang Univ 63.343 3 4.300 12
Peking Univ 62.654 4 4.632 8
Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ 60.907 5 4.643 7
Sichuan Univ 58.367 6 4.033 19
Harvard Univ 58.301 7 4.461 9
Wuhan Univ 56.903 8 4.702 6
Northeastern Univ 54.887 9 4.161 15
Fudan Univ 54.196 10 3.897 22
Shandong Univ 53.921 11 4.162 14
East China Normal Univ 51.757 12 4.309 11
Xiamen Univ 51.354 13 3.705 24
Tongji Univ 51.348 14 4.823 4
Beijing Normal Univ 50.815 15 5.082 3
Huazhong Univ of S&T 50.632 16 3.963 20
Central South Univ 50.535 17 4.107 17
Nanjing Univ 50.285 18 3.851 23
Lanzhou Univ 47.622 19 4.087 18
Jilin Univ 46.049 20 3.292 34
Xi’an Jiaotong Univ 45.655 21 3.664 25
Tsinghua Univ 45.121 22 3.601 26
Zhengzhou Univ 43.389 23 3.442 29
Southeast Univ 39.662 24 3.902 21
Renmin Univ 37.896 25 5.563 1
Nankai Univ 36.427 26 2.950 43
Yunnan Univ 36.236 27 4.382 10
Univ of S & T – China 35.002 28 2.876 44
Tianjin Univ 34.613 29 2.995 41
South China Univ of Technol 34.388 30 2.978 42
Ocean Univ of China 32.747 31 4.202 13
Chongqing Univ 32.519 32 3.260 35
Hunan Univ 32.394 33 3.379 32
Dalian Univ of Technol 31.933 34 3.355 33
Harbin Inst of Technol 30.166 35 3.191 36
Beihang Univ 30.029 36 3.508 28
China Agricultural Univ 29.258 37 3.396 31
Northwest A & F Univ 27.904 38 3.402 30
Beijing Inst of Technol 27.102 39 3.184 37
Univ of Electronic S&T of China 26.892 40 3.073 39
Xinjiang Univ 25.828 41 3.531 27
Northwestern Polytechnical Univ 23.873 42 3.031 40
Minzu Univ of China 22.645 43 4.132 16
National Univ of Defense Technol 16.236 44 3.118 38

Spearman's correlations for consistency of rank order – local vs. global disparity.

DIV*_local TRUE RS_local DIV*_global TRUE RS_global
DIV*_local
TRUE RS_local .502**
DIV*_global .996** .516**
TRUE RS_global .697** .707** .695**
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