An Evolving International Research Collaboration Network: Spatial and Thematic Developments in Co-Authored Higher Education Research, 1998–2018

peer reviewedCo-authored research articles in the disciplinarily heterogeneous field of higher education have dramatically increased in this century, largely driven, as in other fields, by rising international co-authorships. We examine this evolving international collaboration network in higher education research over two decades. To do so, we apply automated bibliometric topic identification and social network analysis of 9,067 papers in 13 core higher education journals (1998–2018). Remarkable expansion in the volume of papers and co-authorships has, surprisingly, not resulted in a more diverse network. Rather, existing co-authorship patterns are strengthened, with the dominance of scholars from a few Anglophone countries largely maintained. Researchers globally seek to co-author with leading scholars in these countries, especially the US, UK, and Australia—at least when publishing in the leading general HE journals based there. Further, the two-mode social network analysis of countries and topics suggests that while Anglophone countries have led the development of higher education research, China and Germany, as leading research-producing countries, are increasingly influential within this world-spanning network. Topically, the vast majority of co-authored papers in higher education research focuses on individual-level phenomena, with organizational and system-level or country-level analysis constituting a (much) smaller proportion, despite policymakers’ emphasis on cross-national comparisons and the growing importance of university actorhood. We discuss implications thereof for the future of the multidisciplinary higher education field.Q-KNO