Using Large-Scale Bibliometric Data in Higher Education Research: Methodological Implications from Three Studies

Recent research found that the global community of higher education (HE) researchers reflects a diversity of contributors who co-author together based on geographic and institutional attributes, especially physical proximity, national incentives, research agendas, and shared culture, language, and identity. Collaborations in the field—measured using journal article co-authorships from the large-scale bibliometric databases Scopus and Web of Science—have expanded dramatically. With most visible research published in a small core of elite, largely Anglophone, journals, the community of HE researchers has a hyperactive core but also a large periphery of part-timers and one-timers. This characterization and understanding of the field was only possible because it was based on analyses of tens of thousands of authors and articles in HE, extended for several decades, that assessed how journal publication, topics, and levels of analysis (individual, organizational, system) have evolved. The results, based on analyzing large-scale bibliometric data, imply that to better understand the future of HE, such newer methodological directions and data sources are key to facilitate more comprehensive examinations of the field.