Topic

With the advent of the “Big Science” era, research collaboration has received much attention from scholars, who have probed the network structure, self-organization, and the growth of international collaboration in science (Wagner & Leydesdorff, 1995), and identified the clusters of research collaboration, ranging from inter-individual research collaboration through inter-departmental and inter-institutional to the international one (Glänzel, 2001; Luukkonen et al., 1992). As many global issues become more complicated and critical, only through cross-countries cooperation can such problems be tackled, and the current COVID-19 is a typical example. Accordingly, the research community has seen a quick increase in the number of co-authored papers in every scientific discipline, as well as within and across countries and geographic areas (Cronin, Shaw, & La Barre, 2003). It is worth noting that the joint research conducted by scientists from different countries is often more complicated than the local-based research collaboration, and scholars have explored the promises and pitfalls in the international collaboration in science and technology (Wagner et al., 2002; Wagner, 2006).

Against this background, a relevant question arises: why some scientists are inclined to conduct more international research collaboration than their peers do? What motivated them to work together with colleagues in other countries? Will the international academic experience of scientists facilitate international research collaboration? Under such circumstances, this empirical study takes the international research collaboration conducted by returnee faculty at the Chinese universities as an example. Before the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, there were over 703,500 Chinese students and scholars studying abroad in 2019, and the number of students returning after finishing studies reached 580,300 accordingly. In the last two decades, China has launched various talent programs to attract its top overseas students back. Those returnee talents who are currently employed at Chinese universities contribute to the international collaboration, and returnee scientists are viewed as an important driver for the increase in productivity and quality of the Chinese research effort.

Research Question

The returnee faculty members become an important force to accelerate the scientific collaboration between China and the former hosting countries, in Europe and North America. Since the decades, a large number of Chinese international students return after achieving their degree and working experience. This faculty cohort is expected to contribute to the international research collaboration, regarding their scientific human and social capital (Jonkers & Tijssen, 2008) they have achieved overseas. Thus, the research question is to probe the process of international research collaboration conducted by returnee faculty members.

Objective

The objective of the research is to explore the process of the international research collaboration conducted by returnee faculty members with scientists. Compared with the home-trained faculty members, this study aims at probing how the faculty members who have accumulated scientific and social capital via their overseas studying and working experience.

Conceptual or theoretical framework

Since this research is designed to zoom in on the specific process of the international research collaboration (which means, at least, one of the authors is from overseas universities or research institutions), this research is based on the theoretical framework of the research collaboration process model, which is put forward by Sonnerwald (2007). She holds that there are four stages of scientific collaboration: foundation, formulation, sustainment, and conclusion.

Qualitative approach Previous research is inclined to probe the international collaboration between scholars in different countries by quantitative method, for instance, in a bibliometric approach. On the one hand, findings through a quantitative approach facilitate our understanding of the art of the state of collaborated research among scientists from different countries; on the other hand, since scientific collaboration is dynamic, the process of the collaboration is like a “black box”, as what takes place during the cooperation is relatively unknown. In such context, this study adopts a quantitative approach, i.e. one-on-one semi-structured interviews, to better understand the process of international scientific research collaboration conducted by the returnee faculty. Sample As the interview data of this study had been collected during the outbreak of the COVID-19, it was not easy for the authors to enter the various campus to conduct interviews. Thus, the author conducted the interviews via the convenience sampling approach. As both authors are from University S, it is relatively easy for them to get contacted with the potential interview partners on campus. University S is chosen, as it is one of the top universities in China, with a large number of returnee faculty members; and it has a focus on engineering and natural science. The authors have sent emails to the returnee faculty, and after three rounds of invitation, 16 interviewees participated in the study. Among them, 13 are males, and 3 are females (the male interviewees are dominant, as the university has its focus on engineering), and they are engineering, natural science, life science, humanities, and social science respectively. The returnee faculty interviewees have either achieved a doctoral degree overseas or studied at least two years in the U.S., Canada, Singapore, France, Germany, Malaysia, etc., and the length of their overseas stay ranges from 2 to 18 years. Process of data collection and analysis Before conducting the official interviews, the authors had conducted interviews with 2 faculty members during the pre-research period, aiming at improving the structure of the interview outline and testing the interview questions. After the pre-research interviews, the authors further adjusted the interview questions according to the two interviews’ advice. Each interview lasted 45-100 minutes, and after obtaining interviewees’ permission, all the 16 interviews were recorded and later transcribed verbatim. To protect the privacy of the interviewees, the anonymity and confidentiality of participants were guaranteed. The data is analyzed by MAXQDA 2018.

Inspired by the research collaboration process model raised by Sonnerwald, this study finds out that the international research collaboration conducted by the returnee faculty at Chinese universities can be divided into four main stages: planning, executing, controlling, and finalizing. In the first stage of planning, the returnee faculty and their colleagues overseas are engaged in four aspects of work: generating the demand for international scientific research collaboration, evaluating the domestic environment for international scientific research cooperation, and examining the changes in the international situation, and selecting the potential international research collaborators. In the second stage of executing, the returnee faculty and their collaborators follow the blueprint for cooperation established in the planning stage and put their ideas into practice, and this stage involves four aspects of work: applying for international scientific research cooperation projects, selecting a division of labor strategy for international scientific research cooperation, realizing open sharing of scientific research resources, and agreeing on international scientific research. In the third stage of controlling, returnee faculty need to deal with the problems arising from the cooperation process to ensure the success of the cooperation. In this stage, they are responsible for responding to the impact of global emergencies on international scientific research cooperation, controlling the impact of international scientific research cooperation projects on international scientific research cooperation, and eliminating prejudice and misunderstanding in interdisciplinary international scientific research cooperation. In the fourth stage of finalizing, the findings show that the returnee faculty benefit from the international collaboration in the following aspects: meeting the “survival needs” by having more publication; meeting the “social needs” by establishing various research links with their peer scientists globally, and meeting the “growth needs” by advancing own’s research skills and gain international impact.

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