Embedding funding consultation in library services. A co-occurrences network analysis of knowledge flow in scientific funding
| Date | 17 September 2018 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-06-2017-0127 |
| Pages | 378-399 |
| Published date | 17 September 2018 |
| Author | Jiang Wu,Jingxuan Cai,Miao Jin,Ke Dong |
Embedding funding consultation
in library services
A co-occurrences network analysis of
knowledge flow in scientific funding
Jiang Wu, Jingxuan Cai, Miao Jin and Ke Dong
School of Information Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China and
Center for Ecommerce Research and Development, Wuhan University,
Wuhan, China
Abstract
Purpose –Although interdisciplinary research is an increasing trend in scientific funding projects, they are
suffering from a lower probability of being funded. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the current
situation on successful case of funding application and provides suggestions on how libraries can expand
services to help scientific funding application.
Design/methodology/approach –This paper utilizes the co-occurrences of disciplinary application codes
to construct an interdisciplinary knowledge flow network. Based on 193517 sponsored projects of the
National Natural Science Foundation of China, the authors study the interdisciplinary flow of knowledge and
investigate the evolution of network structure using social network analysis.
Findings –Results show that the interdisciplinary knowledge flow network is not only a small-world
network but also a scale-free network. Two main knowledge flow paths across scientific departments exist,
showing the heterogeneity of knowledge distributions across scientific disciplines. The authors also find that
if two disciplines in the same scientific department both have a wide influence to other disciplines, they are
more prone to link together and create a knowledge chain.
Originality/value –Funding consultation currently has not occupied an advisory role either in library
services or in the research team. This paper conducts a co-occurrences network analysis of
interdisciplinary knowledge flow in scientific funding projects. Considering the complexity of funding
application and the advantage of traditional library services on information collection, integration, and
utilization, the authors conclude the possibility and necessity of embedding funding consultation in
traditional library services.
Keywords Library services, Knowledge flow, Social network analysis, Interdisciplinary knowledge,
NSFC, Scientific funding service
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC), as an important part of the national
innovation system, plays an irreplaceable role in the development of natural science in
China. For many colleges, universities, and research institutions, the number, quality, and
scope of NSFC projects has been regarded as important indexes to evaluate the strength of
the discipline and the research level.
Interdisciplinary research is widely considered a seedbed for innovation, and the only
plausible approach to complex problems (Rylance, 2015; Porter and Rafols, 2009). About
46.8 percent of the 5,500 existing disciplines are interdisciplinary and new inter-disciplines
are emerging as well (Research, 2005). Under this situation, the NSFC encourage
interdisciplinary applications through a series of policies such as disciplines union funding
support. By the end of 2013, more than 59 percent applicants have ever changed disciplinary
application code (DAC) during application (Wu et al., 2015). Interdisciplinary research needs
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 36 No. 3, 2018
pp. 378-399
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-06-2017-0127
Received 30 June 2017
Revised 24 September 2017
17 December 2017
9 January 2018
Accepted 9 January 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
This work was supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant
No. 71373194) and also supported by “the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities”.
378
LHT
36,3
financial support from different disciplines (van Rijnsoever and Hessels, 2011), and many
scientific foundations, including the NSFC, encourage interdisciplinary collaborations to
accelerate innovation (Benner and Sandström, 2000). Although interdisciplinary research
can have considerable benefits, they are suffering from a lower probability of being funded
(Bromham et al., 2016). Moreover, many scholars have little experience with the funding
application. The difficulty of scientific funding application has generated the demand for the
collection and integration of large quantities of information, which provides the opportunity
and impetus for the exploration of the library service model.
To get a better understanding of the current situation of scientific funding application
and explore a new model to expand library services, we collect data from 193517 sponsored
projects of the NSFC, and study the interdisciplinary flow of knowledge and investigate the
evolution of network structure using social network analysis. We intend to explore the
knowledge flow in interdisciplinary research using scientific funding data set.
The relationship between scientific disciplines, especially the creation of interdisciplinary
knowledge, is strongly influenced by national funding agencies (Lyall et al., 2013; Lowe and
Phillipson, 2009). We propose a new measure to quantify interdisciplinary knowledge
flowability. On the one hand, knowledge flowability considers the cognitive distance among
disciplines based on the DAC tree used by NSFC (Benner and Waldfogel, 2008). On the other
hand, the calculation of knowledge flowability also considers the co-occurrence of scientist’s
interdisciplinary applications, which represent their initial motivation of knowledge flow
among their corresponding scientific disciplines. Knowledge flowability is used to weight
the edges of interdisciplinary knowledge network and investigated through the analysis of
the interdisciplinary knowledge network. Understanding the rules of interdisciplinary
knowledge flow of scientific funding is important to help create research policies and
evaluate studies for scientists (Porter et al., 2007).
The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 is the literature review. Section 3
presents data set collection. Section 4 describes the methods. In Sections 5 and 6, we
empirically analyze and visualize the results. Section 7 is how toembed funding consultation
in library services. Finally, Section 8 is the conclusion and discussion of our work.
2. Literature review
In scientific communities, knowledge flows across various scientific disciplines to solve
emerging complex problems (Siedlok et al., 2015). It is generally been regarded as a
conveyance behavior wherein individuals disperse their obtained knowledge, experiences,
and skills to other s (Zhang et al., 2017). Science is indeed becoming more interdisciplinary
(Porter and Rafols, 2009) and scientists themselves need interdisciplinary knowledge and
seek a variety of knowledge from other individuals through interdisciplinary
collaborations (Carayol and Thi, 2005). In scientific funding, scientists sometimes
pursue interdisciplinary scientific funding applications to succeed in academic
competitions. Generally, interdisciplinary scientists are more competitive in
applications. They do interdisciplinary research and have abilities to integrate
knowledge flexibly. The relationship between scientific disciplines is strongly
influenced by national funding foundations (Lyall et al., 2013). Interdisciplinary
research needs financial support from different disciplines (van Rijnsoever and Hessels,
2011), and many scientific foundations, including the NSFC, encourage interdisciplinary
collaborations to accelerate innovation (Benner and Sandström, 2000). Understanding the
rules of interdisciplinary knowledge flow of scientific funding is important to help create
research policies and evaluate studies for scientists (Porter et al., 2007).
Knowledge flow across various scientific disciplines normally starts from knowledge
chains generated by the interactions between scientists, and becomes a knowledge flow
network with the extension of the flow boundary. With the collision of knowledge and
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Embedding
funding
consultation
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