Abstract
University web sites play an important role in facilitating a wide range of types of communication. This paper reports an analysis of international academic linking in Europe, with particular reference to European Union (EU) integration. The Microsoft search service was used to calculate international interlinking to universities and from universities. Four different web topologies were found for the link structure data and poorly connected countries were identified. The results show the expected EU dominance of the large richer Western European nations, particularly the UK and Germany. The new EU countries are not yet integrated into the EU web but some show strong regional connections.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Barjak, F. (2005), NetReAct Deliverable 1.1: Characterisation of Doctoral Students. Solothurn: University of Applied Sciences Solothurn Northwestern Switzerland.
Battista, G. D., Eades, P., Tamassia, R., Tollis, I. (1999), Graph Drawing: Algorithms for the Visualization of Graphs.New York, NY: Prentice Hall.
Fry, J. (2006), Coordination and control across scientific fields. Implications for a differentiated e-science. In: C. Hine (Ed.), New Infrastructures for Knowledge Production: Understanding E-science (pp. 167–188), Hershey PA: Idea Group Inc.
Glänzel, W., Schubert, A. (2001), Double effort = double impact? A critical view at international coauthorship in chemistry. Scientometrics, 50 (2): 199–214.
Heimeriks, G., Hörlesberger, M., Van Den Besselaar, P. (2003), Mapping communication and collaboration in heterogeneous research networks. Scientometrics, 58 (2): 391–413.
Heimeriks, G., Van Den Besselaar, P. (2006), Analyzing hyperlink networks: The meaning of hyperlink-based indicators of knowledge. Cybermetrics, 10 (1), Retrieved August 1, 2006 from: http://www.cindoc.csic.es/cybermetrics/articles/v2010i2001p2001.html.
Ingwersen, P. (1998), The calculation of Web Impact Factors. Journal of Documentation, 54 (2): 236–243.
Kamada, T., Kawai, S. (1989), An algorithm for drawing general undirected graphs. Information Processing Letters, 31 (1): 7–15.
Li, X., Thelwall, M., Wilkinson, D., Musgrove, P. B. (2005A), National and international university departmental web site interlinking, part 1: Validation of departmental link analysis. Scientometrics, 64 (2): 151–185.
Li, X., Thelwall, M., Wilkinson, D., Musgrove, P. B. (2005B), National and international university departmental web site interlinking, part 2: Link patterns. Scientometrics, 64 (2): 187–208.
Liang, L., Zhu, L. (2002), Major factors affecting China’s inter-regional research collaboration: Regional scientific productivity and geographic proximity. Scientometrics, 55 (2): 287–316.
Luukkonen, T., Persson, O., Sivertsen, G. (1992), Understanding patterns of international scientific collaboration. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 17 (1): 101–126.
Mayr, P., Tosques, F. (2005), Google Web APIs: An Instrument for Webometric Analyses? Retrieved January 20, 2006, from http://www.ib.hu-berlin.de/%7Emayr/arbeiten/ISSI2005_Mayr_Toques.pdf
Middleton, I., McConnell, M., Davidson, G. (1999), Presenting a model for the structure and content of a university World Wide Web site. Journal of Information Science, 25 (3): 219–227.
Musgrove, P. B., Binns, R., Page-Kennedy, T., Thelwall, M. (2003), A method for identifying clusters in sets of interlinking Web spaces. Scientometrics, 58 (3): 657–672.
Ortega, J. L., Aguillo, I., Cothey, V., Scharnhorst, A. (2008), Maps of the academic web in the European Higher Education Area: an exploration of visual web indicators. Scientometrics, 74 (2): 295–308.
ORTEGA PRIEGO, J. L. (2003), A Vector Space Model as a methodological approach to the Triple Helix dimensionality: A comparative study of Biology and Biomedicine centres of two European national research councils from a Webometric view. Scientometrics, 58 (2): 429–443.
Park, H. W., Thelwall, M. (2006), Web science communication in the age of globalization: Links among universities’ websites in Asia and Europe. New Media and Society, 8 (4): 631–652.
Polanco, X., Boudourides, M. A., Besagni, D., Roche, I. (2001), Clustering and Mapping Web Sites for Displaying Implicit Associations and Visualising Networks: University of Patras.
The World Bank Group. (2006), EDSTATS — Global Country Data. Retrieved July 30, 2006, from http://devdata.worldbank.org/edstats/cd5.asp
Thelwall, M. (2001), Exploring the link structure of the Web with network diagrams. Journal of Information Science, 27 (6): 393–402.
Thelwall, M. (2002), Conceptualizing documentation on the Web: An evaluation of different heuristic-based models for counting links between university web sites. Journal of American Society for Information Science and Technology, 53 (12): 995–1005.
Thelwall, M. (2002), Evidence for the existence of geographic trends in university web site interlinking. Journal of Documentation, 58 (5): 563–574.
Thelwall, M. (2004), Weak benchmarking indicators for formative and semi-evaluative assessment of research. Research Evaluation, 13 (1): 63–68.
Thelwall, M., Harries, G. (2004), Do the Web sites of higher rated scholars have significantly more online impact? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 55 (2): 149–159.
Thelwall, M., Li, X. (2005), Web Networks in Life Sciences Research (NetReAct D2.4), Bonn, Germany: Empirica Gesellschaft für Kommunikations-und Technologieforschung mbH.
Thelwall, M., Smith, A. G. (2002), A study of interlinking between Asia-Pacific university web sites. Scientometrics, 55 (3): 335–348.
Thelwall, M., Tang, R., Price, E. (2003), Linguistic patterns of academic web use in Western Europe. Scientometrics, 56 (3): 417–432.
Thelwall, M., Vann, K., Fairclough, R. (2006), Web issue analysis: An Integrated Water Resource Management case study. Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 57 (10): 1303–1314.
Thelwall, M., Vaughan, L., Björneborn, L. (2005), Webometrics. Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 39: 81–135.
Tijssen, R., Moed, H. F. (1989), Literature-based statistical analyses of international scientific co-operation, an exploratory case study of the Netherlands. In: A. F. J. Van Raan, A. J. Nederhof, H. F. Moed (Eds.), Science Studies (Select Proceedings of the First International Workshop on Science and Technology Indicators, Leiden, 1988) (pp. 129–146), Leiden: DSWO-Press.
Vaughan, L. (2005), Exploring website features for business information. Scientometrics, 61 (3): 467–477.
Vaughan, L. (2006), Visualizing linguistic and cultural differences using Web co-link data. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 57 (9): 1178–1193.
Vaughan, L., Thelwall, M. (2005), A modeling approach to uncover hyperlink patterns: The case of Canadian universities. Information Processing & Management, 41 (2): 347–359.
Zuccala, A. (2006), Author cocitation analysis is to intellectual structure as web colink analysis is to …? Journal of the American Society for Information Science & Technology, 57 (11): 1487–1502.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Thelwall, M., Zuccala, A. A university-centred European Union link analysis. Scientometrics 75, 407–420 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1831-8
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-007-1831-8