title: Scientific Collaboration in Chinese Nursing Research: A Social Network Analysis Study.
abstract: Collaboration has become very important in research and in technological progress. Coauthorship networks in different fields have been intensively studied as an important type of collaboration in recent years. Yet there are few published reports about collaboration in the field of nursing. This article aimed to reveal the status and identify the key features of collaboration in the field of nursing in China. Using data from the top 10 nursing journals in China from 2003 to 2013, we constructed a nursing scientific coauthorship network using social network analysis. We found that coauthorship was a common phenomenon in the Chinese nursing field. A coauthorship network with 228 subnetworks formed by 1428 nodes was constructed. The network was relatively loose, and most subnetworks were of small scales. Scholars from Shanghai and from military medical system were at the center of the Chinese nursing scientific coauthorship network. We identified the authors' positions and influences according to the research output and centralities of each author. We also analyzed the microstructure and the evolution over time of the maximum subnetwork.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: School of Nursing, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine (Ms Hou and Drs Hao and Duan); Nursing Department (Ms Cao), Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Beijing; and School of Nursing, Dalian University (Ms She), China.
authors.forename: Xiao-Ni
authors.initials: XN
authors.lastname: Hou
authors.forename: Yu-Fang
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Hao
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cao
authors.forename: Yan-Chao
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: She
authors.forename: Hong-Mei
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Duan
mesh_terms: D015706:Bibliometrics; D002681:China; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D006801:Humans; D015399:Nursing Research / Q000379:methods*; D012944:Social Support