Knowledge Production and International Academic Collaboration in Taiwan: A Disciplinary Analysis

Taiwan, an emerging scientific powerhouse, has systematically upgraded its knowledge production and international academic collaboration. It is imperative to understand such new developments. In addition, according to extant theoretical and empirical perspectives, disciplinary areas and faculty members' characteristics are also critical factors influencing the behaviours of knowledge production and international collaboration. Under this broader context, this research aims to decipher the progress of knowledge production and international co-authorship at the national level. This study will explore three wider disciplinary areas to examine the academic production and international co-authorship in relation to faculty characteristics/factors, including faculty rank, mobility experience, and gender (using data from 2008 to 2018). Our findings indicate that knowledge production and international collaboration have declined in Taiwan since 2013, with lower output seen in recent years. Performance in different disciplinary areas is detectable within the data. In addition, academic rank offers more explanatory power in determining publication behaviour than mobility experiences and gender. Research indicates that young faculty members seem to bear a greater burden of knowledge production and international collaboration than senior professors. Mobility experiences and gender are not influential in terms of knowledge production. These results bring substantial implications to the Taiwanese academic system.