Australian Universities’ Review - Collaboration in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia - Co-authorship Study

Oct 15, 2026

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This paper reports the first large-scale quantitative investigation of research collaboration in Australian humanities, arts, and social sciences (HASS), measured through co-authorship. Web of Science data were extracted for Australian HASS publications from 2004–2013, focusing on softer social sciences. Collaboration increased over the decade, with strong intra-region ties along Australia’s east coast and frequent international collaboration with English-speaking countries far away. Social sciences collaborated more than humanities and showed higher citation impact; any co-authorship generally increased citations, providing benchmarks for future research.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages13

Reading Time33 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Rationale for studying collaboration

Measuring collaboration through co-authorship

Background

Co-authorship as a proxy and its limitations

Indexing coverage for HASS outputs

Collaboration patterns across HASS fields

A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W Collaboration in the Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences in Australia Gaby Haddow, Jianhong (Cecilia) Xia & Michele Willson Curtin University This paper reports on the first large-scale quantitative investigation into collaboration, demonstrated in co-authorship, by Australian humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) researchers. Web of Science data were extracted for Australian HASS publications, with a focus on the softer social sciences, over the period 2004 – 2013. The findings show that collaboration has increased over the last ten years, with strong intra-region collaboration concentrated on the east coast of Australia. International collaboration occurred most frequently with English speaking countries at vast distances from Australia. On average, fields in the social sciences collaborated at higher rates and attracted higher citations than humanities fields, but co-authorship of any kind was likely to increase citation rates. The results provide a snapshot of collaboration by Australian HASS authors in this time period and can be used as a benchmark to explore collaboration patterns in the future. Keywords: HASS, humanities, social sciences, collaboration, Web of Science Introduction A report into the humanities, arts and social sciences in Australia stated: ‘In an era when collaboration is encouraged by institutions and by funding mechanisms, the pattern of collaboration is becoming an important consideration’(Turner & Brass, 2014, p. 69) . This paper seeks to explore aspects of collaboration in specific humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) fields in order to identify the extent of collaboration, the countries Australian HASS authors are collaborating with, and to test whether collaboration is associated with higher impact as reflected in citations. It considers both national and international collaboration to gain an insight into collaboration patterns by different Australian regions and by different HASS fields. As a purely quantitative study, the research used co-authorship as a proxy for collaboration, thereby presenting a subset of the full range of activities that may occur in research collaboration. There are a number of reasons why collaboration is encouraged, including to share expertise and the costs associated with research, and to boost research productivity and scholarly impact (Beaver, 2001; Katz & Martin, 1997) . For researchers in the sciences, the need for large-scale facilities can be a strong driver for collaboration. This has previously been seen as less relevant for HASS researchers as they generally do not have the same requirements for costly equipment and research facilities. On the other hand, sharing skills and expertise,‘intellectual companionship’, and the potential for higher 24 Collaboration in HASS in Australia Gaby Haddow, Jianhong (Cecilia) Xia & Michele Willson vol. 59, no. 1, 2017 A U S T R A L I A N U N I V E R S I T I E S ’ R E V I E W visibility of research are common to all disciplines (Katz & Martin, 1997, p. 15). For research funders, policy-makers and institutions, increases in productivity and impact contribute to improved performance in world university rankings and the pressure to collaborate, particularly with international partners, from funding agencies andinstitutions is applied across the disciplines. The research reported in this paper is the first large-scale quantitative study of research collaboration, represented by co-authorship, by HASS researchers in Australia. Using data from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database, the research findings are a valuable source of information about Australian HASS collaboration patterns over the past ten years and establish a benchmark from which future collaboration trends can be measured. Background The use of co-authorship as a proxy for measuring collaboration is an established, if imperfect, method to explore patterns and tr

FAQs

How does the paper measure research collaboration in Australian HASS?

It uses co-authorship as a proxy for collaboration, treating formal published outputs with two or more authors as the measurable collaboration signal.

What data source and time period does the study use?

The study extracts data from the Thomson Reuters Web of Science database for Australian HASS publications covering 2004–2013.

What overall collaboration trends and geographic patterns are reported?

Collaboration increased over the last ten years, with strong intra-region collaboration concentrated on Australia’s east coast and frequent international collaboration with English-speaking countries at vast distances.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by Ben