International Collaboration in Taiwan Emergency Department Publications: A Social Network Analysis

Area of Science:

• Medical research
• Public health
• Emergency medicine

Background:

• Emergency medicine (EM) is a rapidly expanding clinical and academic field.
• Academic EM progress is often gauged by scientific publication output.
• This study investigates international academic collaboration trends among Taiwan's emergency departments (EDs) over the last two decades.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the trend of academic international cooperation among Taiwan's emergency departments (EDs) over the past 20 years.
• To analyze publication output, collaboration patterns, and citation impact of Taiwan EDs' research.
• To identify key international partners and assess the benefits of global academic engagement.

Main Methods:

• Social network analysis (SNA) was employed to map and quantify international collaborations.
• Publications with a first author from Taiwan EDs before 2021 were analyzed.
• Publications were categorized into domestic (Taiwan-only authors) and international (Taiwan and foreign authors) groups.

Main Results:

• A total of 4,363 publications were analyzed, with 4,046 domestic and 317 international.
• Significant increases were observed in annual publication numbers for both domestic and international collaborations.
• International collaborations (Group two) showed significantly higher median citation and author counts compared to domestic ones (Group one).
• The top collaborating countries were the United States, China, Malaysia, Japan, and Australia.

Conclusions:

• Taiwan EDs demonstrate a growing capacity for international research collaboration, evidenced by increased multi-country publications.
• Research publications involving international collaboration received higher citation counts, suggesting greater impact.
• Enhancing international partnerships is recommended for advancing academic achievements in emergency medicine research.