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Article

Scientometrics-Based Research Status and Hot Topics Analysis of Chinese Private Colleges under Policy Guidance

by
Zhongqin Kuang
1,2,
Yan Jia
1,3 and
Jun Yang
4,5,6,*
1
Faculty of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China
2
Teacher Development Centre, Liaoning University of International Business and Economics, Dalian 116052, China
3
Department of Teaching Supervision and Evaluation, Jilin Medical University, Jilin City 132013, China
4
Human Settlements Research Center, Liaoning Normal University, Dalian 116029, China
5
School of Humanities and Law, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110169, China
6
Jangho Architecture College, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110169, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2023, 15(1), 646; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010646
Submission received: 1 November 2022 / Revised: 14 December 2022 / Accepted: 24 December 2022 / Published: 30 December 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainable Development Goals and Transformation in Higher Education)
Browse Figures
Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Private colleges play an important role in the cause of education, explore the research landscape and trends in development, and provide theoretical support and management practices for high-quality, healthy, and sustainable development. Based on a bibliometric analysis, and employing techniques such as scientometrics, social network analysis, a two-dimensional matrix, and textual analysis, this study analyzed the research literature on private colleges in the CSSCI database from 1998 to 2021, along with relevant policies from the legal literature database. This analysis addressed the dimensions of spatial and temporal distribution, author cooperation, primary journals, and research topics. The results showed a significant increase in the number of research papers published by private colleges, although with an uneven regional distribution of research development and differing influence and attention. The primary research forces of private colleges were mainly concentrated in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions. For scientific research cooperation, several core research groups were formed. According to the content analysis of relevant policies, the research of private universities has gone through three evolutionary stages: the lead period, the development period, and the adjustment period. Scholars in the lead period focused on learning about the advanced systems and concepts of foreign private colleges, while conducting research from a macro perspective. During the development period, the focus was on researching the management modes of Chinese private colleges from the medium point of view, while exploring different operating modes. During the adjustment period, private colleges research has returned to the macro level, exploring the classified management and governance of private colleges and re-examining China’s private colleges.

1. Introduction

Private colleges are institutions of higher learning run by enterprises, institutions, social organizations, other organizations, and individual citizens with nonstate financial education funds [1,2]. Private education has entered a new stage of development since China’s reform and opening up [1]. The state actively encourages the development of private higher education [3,4]. By 2021, there were 762 private colleges in China that made an extremely important contribution to China’s higher education. Private colleges adjust the imbalance in the distribution of higher-education resources as an important supplementary measure in expanding and promoting higher education in China [5]. Simultaneously, private colleges have also played a positive role in improving the scale, quality, investment, and efficiency of higher education in China, balancing higher education in the East and Midwest, coordinating the development of various colleges, and building a more developed higher-education system [6,7].
This study performed spatiotemporal distribution, high-yield authors and cooperation, distribution of major journals, and keyword cooccurrence network scientific metrological analyses of private colleges and examined the scientific research landscape and frontier trends during different periods to understand the development law and better serve the theoretical research and management practices of private colleges [8].

2. Data Source and Methods

This study is based on a bibliometric analysis, which involves identifying the evolution and development trend of a certain discipline or research field through a statistical analysis of the published literature [9,10]. To ensure the authority and reliability of the literature, the data are sourced from the Chinese Social Sciences Citation Index (CSSCI) core journal database in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and the following retrieval methods were adopted: First, a search with the retrieval formula Su = (‘Private Colleges’ + ‘Private Universities’ + ‘Independent Colleges’) and the retrieval date of 27 December 2021 was conducted, and a total of 2675 journal documents were retrieved. Thereafter, following a manual identification that individually excluded school profiles, meeting notices, and literature with missing author information, 2398 highly relevant documents from 1998 to 2021 were finally obtained, and information such as journals, funding, publication dates, publishing units, authors, keywords, citations, and download frequency was collected. Simultaneously, after a search for laws and regulations related to private education in the legal literature database, a total of 23 policies and regulations were collected that were closely related to the theme of private colleges since 1982. This study performed a statistical analysis of the research literature on private colleges using scientific metrology, social network analysis, and two-dimensional (2D) matrix analysis and interpreted the relevant laws and policies through textual analysis.

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Spatiotemporal Distribution

The number of papers and project funds are important criteria for measuring the status of research. Figure 1 shows the annual paper output, funding, and proportion of private university research. The paper output exhibited an inverted U-shape, and the funded projected exhibited a significant growth trend. As research in China is greatly affected by policies, analysis of education policies since 1987 showed that the private education system did not make a profit during its fine-tuning (1978–1998) [5]. Moreover, the literature included in the CNKI database began in 1998, but the literature prior to this time point cannot be compared with the policy. The Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China passed in 1998, serving as the prelude to an increase in non-governmental university research. In 1999, with the implementation of the policy of education industrialization, higher education began to introduce marketization. From the perspective of literature, since the study was in the period of germination and development from 1998 to 2001, the number of papers was small, the annual output was below 50, and the increase was slow. We defined the period prior to 2001 as the leading period.
The measures for registering private colleges proposed in 2001, and the nongovernmental Education Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China adopted on 28 December 2002, proposed the concept of “reasonable return” [11], meaning that the investor “obtains reasonable return from the balance of managing schools.” This greatly stimulated the relevant research progress of private colleges. Additionally, in 2003, the first project fund was established, thus increasing the number of projects annually. The number of articles on related topics from 2002 to 2008 increased annually and entered a rapid growth stage. During this period, the output of papers exhibited a steep straight-line surge trend, from less than 35 papers in 2002 to 200 papers in 2008, with an average annual growth rate of 35.72%. We defined this period as the growth period.
After the peak in 2008, the number of private college journals and project funds decreased in 2009. The state has made several amendments to the Education Law of the People’s Republic of China, Education Promotion Law of the People’s Republic of China, and Higher Education Law of the People’s Republic of China since 2009 [12]. Although a decline was observed in the number of articles issued, holistically, the annual number still showed a high output, and an output of approximately 100 papers has been maintained over the years. In addition, the funded projects were not significantly affected, and are at a relatively average level. We defined this period as the adjustment period.
Table 1 shows the main institutions responsible for private university research, sorted by institution name and number of articles published. Figure 2 shows the geographical and spatial distribution with a digital world map, to comprehensively display the current distribution and research strength. This study shows the layout characteristics, with Jiangsu and Zhejiang as the core regions. According to the statistics on the publishing institutions, Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan were at the forefront, and the research institutions with active publishing activities were mainly distributed in economically developed regions. This reflected that private colleges attracted considerable attention in economically developed regions [13].

3.2. High Yield Authors and Cooperation

It is helpful to further understand the current situation and trend of non-governmental university research by determining the information uptake and creative abilities of the core authors.
First, we determined the number of high-yield authors, which was calculated according to Equation (1), proposed by Price [9]:
M = 0.749 × N max
Yitao Wang was the scholar who published the most research papers related to private colleges (23 papers), and hence N max = 23 and M = 3.59 post calculation. According to the statistics on the authors’ papers, 747 scholars contributed research on the theme of private colleges. Authors who published more than 4 papers were designated high-yield authors (Table 2). The top ten domestic high-output authors in the field and their most highly cited contributions are shown in Table 3.
Second, the software Gephi was used to draw the cooperation network for these high-yield core figures and research teams (Figure 3). The nodes in the graph represent the authors, the size of the nodes represents the influence of the authors in the network, and the thickness of the internodal connection represents the strength of the cooperation among the authors. In the author cooperation network shown in Figure 3, Yitao Wang, a scholar from Suzhou University, had the largest number of articles and the largest intermediary centrality. The network exhibited a relatively concentrated state, forming a core author network centered on Yitao Wang and Meng Shi.
From the perspective of cooperation intensity, it was observed that Yitao Wang of Suzhou University and Xuqing Xu of Zhejiang Shuren University exhibited the closest cooperation, and had extensive cooperation with Shengzu Dong, a scholar of the Shanghai Academy of Educational Sciences. Meng Shi, a scholar of Shandong Woman University, maintained close cooperative relations with Maoyuan Pan and Dunrong Bie of Xiamen University. In addition, Qingyun Huang, a scholar at Shanghai Jianqiao University, had an active primary school art group.

3.3. Distribution of Major Journals

Table 4 shows the main journals from the study sorted by the number of articles issued, citation frequencies, and number of downloads. No matter the dimension, Education Development Research ranked first, showing its importance as a well-known private college journal. China’s Higher Education and Higher Education Research were also at the forefront, which showed the important scientific research positions of these journals, greatly influencing their dissemination and diffusion. In addition, the top 10 journals were virtually identical under the three dimensions, but the rank shifted under different dimensions. This showed that, although the three indicators had different aims in examining journals, they all held a certain relevance. Subsequently, SPSS 24.0 was used for Pearson Correlation Analysis and Test. The test results found the three dimensions significantly correlated at the level of 0.05, and the correlation coefficient exceeded 0.9. Table 5 shows that the three dimensions were highly correlated in measuring the core journals.
We believed that, the evaluation of the core journals should comprehensively examine a journal’s cited and downloaded amounts. Based on the determination of core authors by Zhong (2012), the minimum download volume of core journals was defined in Equation (2),
M p = 0.749 × N p max
where p max represents the maximum number of articles published by the most prolific authors. The lowest citation frequency of core journals was defined in Equation (3),
M c = 0.749 × N c max
where c max represents the highest cumulative citation frequency of the journal. According to statistical analysis of the private colleges’ published research journals, the most productive journals published 255 papers, and the cumulative frequency of cited journals was 3200. Therefore, according to the aforementioned formula, the criteria for determining the core research journals of private colleges are that the number of articles published should not be less than 12 and the cumulative frequency of citation should not be less than 42. Furthermore, the 2D matrix method was used to map the 29 core journals to different quadrants according to the indices of the journals’ relative citation and download volumes, to reveal these journals’ influence and attention in this research field. The different quadrants’ influence and attention are shown in Table 6.
As shown in Figure 4, the journal’s relative citations and aggregate downloads were taken as the abscissa and ordinate of the 2D matrix, respectively, and the point where the relative citation and aggregate downloads of the journal equaled one was taken as the dividing line where the 2D matrix was divided into four different quadrants.
Education Research, Higher Education Research, Education and Economy, Education Research of Tsinghua University, Higher Engineering Education Research, Education Development Research, China Higher Education Research, and Foreign Education Research were in the quadrant of high citations and downloads. Among them, the relative citations and downloads for Education Research were the highest among the 29 comparative journals, and the other seven journals had high relative citations and downloads. They belonged to the leading journals of non-governmental university research. Education Science, Chinese University Teaching, Fudan Education Forum, Comparative Education Research, and University Education Management were located in the quadrant of “low citation-high download.” The relative citation volume of these four journals was below one, but the deviation from one was not considerable, and their relative download volume was not below one. This indicated that they had high attention and great development potential to become important pillar journals in the future. China’s Higher Education and Jiangsu’s Higher Education were in the quadrant of “low download-high cited.” These two journals had high relative citations, ranking 5th and 10th among the 29 journals, respectively. However, their relative downloads were low, ranking 15th and 21st among the 29 journals, respectively, indicating that these journals’ had high influence with the need to further improve their attention. Fourteen journals, including Ideological Education Research, Modern University Education, University Education Science, Education Review, and Modern Education Management, were located in the quadrant of low citation and low download. Their relative citation and download volumes were low, indicating that their research was still in the stage of germination and development, and their attention was also relatively low.

3.4. Keyword Cooccurrence Network

Through software and manual recognition, the keywords were repeatedly cleaned and standardized to reduce the impact of polysemy and nonstandard application. According to Figure 1, the development of private colleges can be roughly divided into three stages: 1998–2001, 2002–2008, and 2009–2021.
First, the frequencies of research keywords in each of the three stages were analyzed and counted, and the numbers of keywords were 201, 1916, and 2991. Thereafter, Gephi was used to perform keyword cooccurrence analysis on the preprocessing “Private University” subject literature keywords. As shown in Figure 5 (1998–2001, 2002–2008, 2009–2021, and 1998–2021), this study took the keywords’ intermediary centrality as the measurement index, to distinguish the measurement based on the frequency of keywords. The larger the cooccurrence network node and the greater the intermediary centrality shown in Figure 6, the greater the role of the keyword in the cooccurrence network.

3.4.1. The First Stage (1998–2001): The Leading Period of Private University Research

The research content at this stage mainly focused on learning from foreign countries. High-frequency words included “Japan”, “higher education”, “the United States”, and “state-run.” Wu (2001) believed that the development of the market economy caused the fission of China’s original allocation of educational resources, and that private colleges actively assumed the role of educational services in the market economy [14]. However, concerning the current situation, a fair and standard policy environment has not been established [15]. Therefore, at the policy level, we should learn extensively from foreign experience and advanced achievements [16]. Chen (1999) believed that an important reason for Japan’s rapid economic development after the war was that the state and government attached great importance to the development of private schools, while developing the economy [17]. Through legislation, policies, and a series of measures, they granted private schools equal status with public schools, and the developed private schools promoted the popularization of Higher Education [18]. Chen (1999) studied the different opinions held by various circles in the process of formulating relevant policies during the great development of Japan’s higher education, from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, and the situations in which they were used for reference by China [19,20]. Concomitantly, American higher education also rapidly developed under the influence of liberalism, where religion laid a certain foundation for the country’s private higher education. Although China absorbed the development advantages of American private colleges, it has continuously explored the development mode most suitable to the national conditions [21,22].
At this stage, the state attached great importance to the development of private colleges. Following the Educational Law of the PRC, the Higher Education Law of PRC was promulgated in August 1998, and it involved the basic characteristics of higher education and the establishment and organization of colleges. It has substantially stimulated relevant research in private universities. Currently, it showcases the journey of Chinese private colleges on a further standardized and institutionalized road, laying a solid foundation [23].

3.4.2. The Second Stage (2002–2008): The Growth Period of Private University Research

The research content at this stage mainly focused on the study of modes of school administration and operation. The high-frequency words included “higher education”, “education popularization”, “innovation”, “teaching quality”, “public universities”, and “private colleges.” In 2002, there were over 16 million students in various types of higher-education institutions in China, and the gross enrollment rate exceeded 15%, indicating entrance into the stage of the popularization of higher education [24]. After a full investigation and solicitation of opinions in the early stage, in April 2003, the Ministry of Education issued the Several Opinions on Standardizing and Strengthening the Management of Independent Colleges and Universities with New Mechanisms and Models. Under this background, private colleges in China entered a historical new stage of development. Si (2005) empirically analyzed the training mode of high-quality applied innovative talents of Zhejiang University City College from the three structural elements of training objectives, specifications, and processes, and proposed several inspirations [25] for independent colleges to construct a training mode of applied talents [26,27,28,29,30]. Pan (2004) demonstrated the school management mode of state-owned private secondary colleges [31,32] and believed that, when such colleges grew well under the promotion of various conditions, they should be allowed to not occupy state-owned assets, completely separate from the original public colleges, and become fully independent colleges [33].
At this stage, the state issued relevant policies to provide institutional guarantees for the rapid development of private colleges. For example, in 2001, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Education issued the Measures for Registration of Private colleges, which pointed out that civil affairs departments and education departments at all levels should actively cooperate with the registration of private colleges. In 2002, the 31st meeting of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People’s Congress passed the Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Promotion of Private Education, which proposed that the sponsors of profit-making private schools can obtain income from running schools, and the balance should be handled following the provisions of the company law and other relevant laws and administrative regulations. These policies have greatly stimulated the relevant research progress of private colleges and have led to the approval the first fund project, creating the conditions that allowed for this research progress [34,35].

3.4.3. The Third Stage (2009–2021): The Adjustment Period of Private University Research

This stage’s research content mainly focused on exploring modes of governance. High-frequency words primarily include “higher education”, “classified management”, “public colleges”, and “nonprofit.” Wang (2018) analyzed Ginling College and pointed out that donation was the main source of higher-education funds in the Republic of China, proposing suggestions for developing higher education [36]. Pan (2013) pointed out that private higher education is a special development mode that integrates the public welfare of education and profit of investment [37,38] and meets the requirements of national conditions [39]. The state should develop nongovernmental higher education in multiple ways, improve its classified management policy [40], and include investment and school operation modes that require reasonable returns. It was revealed that private investment can replace public investment [41], and incentivized policies should be formulated to encourage and provide a certain profit space [42,43] to improve the enthusiasm for private investments and promote the healthy, rapid, and sustainable development of private higher education [44]. Zhong (2011) proposed to implement classified management for Chinese private colleges, clean up discriminatory policies against private higher education [45,46], provide substantive policy support and financial support to such colleges [47], straighten out their internal governance structures [48], completely respect their autonomy in managing schools, guide the scientific positioning of private colleges [46], and put energy and financial resources into talent training and teaching [49,50].
The state has made several amendments to the Educational Law of PRC, Education Promotion Law of the PRC, and Higher Education Law of PRC since 2009. In 2021, the State Council issued the Regulations on the Implementation of the Law of PRC on the Promotion of Private Education, which defined the rights and responsibilities of the sponsors and people’s governments at all levels, to ensure legal continued operation of private schools, maintaining high quality. The revision of these policies promoted the standardized and orderly development of private colleges, and provided institutional guarantees for the development [51].

4. Conclusions

Based on a bibliometric analysis, this study analyzed the research literature on private colleges in the CSSCI database from 1998 to 2021, along with the relevant policies in the legal literature database. Considering also the prior research of other scholars like Ahn, Omus, and Takeshiichi Sugi, the following conclusions were obtained:
First, from the perspective of time and space distribution, the main publishing positions of non-governmental university research exhibited unbalanced development, with differences in influence and attention. The research covered the overall trend in development, explored the regional distribution, and observed a concentration of the main research force in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
Second, from the perspective of the author cooperation network, several core scientific cooperation groups have been formed in this field, showing a core author network centered on Yitao Wang and Meng Shi. Qingyun Huang, a scholar of Shanghai Jianqiao University, has an active primary school technical group.
Third, regarding the distribution of journals, eight journals, including Education Research, Higher Education Research, Education and Economy, Education Research of Tsinghua University, Higher Engineering Education Research, Education Development Research, China Higher Education Research, and Foreign Education Research, were in the quadrant of high citations and downloads.
Finally, from the perspective of the keyword contribution network, we analyzed the research literature on private colleges in the CSSCI database from 1998 to 2021, and the relevant policies in the legal literature database. We observed that, from the perspective of development, non-governmental university research has experienced three evolutionary stages: the lead, growth, and adjustment periods. Thereafter, the keywords of the documents from the three stages of the policy analysis results were analyzed. The analysis results showed that the research focuses of private colleges exhibited different characteristics and manifestations in different development periods. In the early stage of development, they focused on studying and borrowing from other countries’ advanced school-operating systems and concepts of private universities, conducting research from a macro perspective. In the middle term, they focused on studying the school management mode of private colleges in China from a medium perspective, by exploring different forms. During the adjustment period, the private university was studied again at the macro level, exploring the classified management and governance, and reexamining and rethinking China’s private colleges.
In addition, through studies on the overall situation of China’s private colleges, we found the inseparability of development from government support and from the regulation of the market. Given the ever-increasing societal demand for education, promoting development is significant, and this reflects the general trend of policy support [52,53]. Therefore, combined with Lv Hongjun, Wang Liming, Jung, Bao Wei, Bilimoria D, Boyd D, and Kim’s previous research, this study proposes the following policies for the authorities.
Implement public finance support policies [54] and set up special development funds. Governments at all levels should further increase financial input with financial incentives and subsidies and should form a long-term mechanism to support its development.
Establish student source support policies and highlight the characteristics of private colleges. Governments at all levels should expand the right of independent enrollment and stipulate that certain high-quality private colleges can realize independent enrollment based on a certain proportion of the enrollment scale, according to the relevant regulations, the approved school scale, the scientific positioning of different levels and types of private colleges [55], and misplaced development, highlighting the characteristics of private colleges [56].
Establish a talent incentive mechanism to protect the rights and interests of private teachers [16,57]. Governments at all levels should establish a reasonable and free-flow mechanism to improve training and promotion opportunities for teachers in private colleges and universities [58]. Concomitantly, they should improve the security system for nongovernmental teachers [59], ensuring their salaries and retirement benefits, and solve their worries at the source.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Z.K.; Methodology, Z.K.; Validation, J.Y.; Data curation, Y.J.; Writing—original draft, Z.K.; Writing—review & editing, Y.J.; Supervision, J.Y.; Funding acquisition, Z.K. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research was funded by Program 2021 of the China Association for Non-Government Education, grant number canfzg21040 and Social Science Project of Education Department of Jilin Province, grant number JJKH20230531SK.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Theoretical Framework.
Figure 1. Theoretical Framework.
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Figure 2. Time Distribution of Documents, Funds, and Policies of Private University Research.
Figure 2. Time Distribution of Documents, Funds, and Policies of Private University Research.
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Figure 3. Geographical Distribution of Private University Research.
Figure 3. Geographical Distribution of Private University Research.
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Figure 4. Cooperation Network Map of High-Yielding Scholars in Private University Research.
Figure 4. Cooperation Network Map of High-Yielding Scholars in Private University Research.
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Figure 5. Two-Dimensional Combination Diagram of Relative Citation and Download Volumes of the Research Journals of Private Colleges.
Figure 5. Two-Dimensional Combination Diagram of Relative Citation and Download Volumes of the Research Journals of Private Colleges.
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Figure 6. Cooccurrence Network Map of Keywords in Private University Research.
Figure 6. Cooccurrence Network Map of Keywords in Private University Research.
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Table
Table 1. List of Main Institutions Studying Private Colleges.
Table 1. List of Main Institutions Studying Private Colleges.
Organization NameNumber of
Articles Issued		Organization NameNumber of
Articles Issued		Organization NameNumber of
Articles Issued
Xiamen University115Shanghai Normal University36Sanjiang University17
Beijing Normal University90Suzhou University32Beijing City University16
Peking University89Nanjing Normal University31Nankai University13
Zhejiang Shuren University89Xi’an Institute of Foreign Affairs28Ningbo Dahongying University13
Huazhong University of Science and Technology77Sichuan Normal University28Shandong Yingcai University12
Zhejiang University75South China Normal University23Huanghe University of Science and Technology10
WuHan University46Shanghai Jianqiao College23Hebei University9
East China Normal University44Renmin University of China22Qingdao Huanghai University9
Jiangxi Lantian School39Fudan University20Liaoning Education Research Institute7
Hunan International Economics College33Tsinghua University18Jilin Huaqiao Foreign Languages Institute8
Table
Table 2. High-Yield Authors of Private College Research.
Table 2. High-Yield Authors of Private College Research.
AuthorFrequencyAuthorFrequencyAuthorFrequencyAuthorFrequency
Wang Yitao23Luo Kun8Xiao Hao6Zhong Binglin5
Xu Xuqing15Liu Juqin8Zhou Guoping6Chen Zhidan5
Que Haibao13Bo Yun7Wu Daguang5Jin Xin5
Dong Shengzu10Zhang Liguo6Shi Meng5Liu Gendong5
Pan Maoyuan9Zhu Jian6Chen Weixu5
Chen Wuyuan9Bie Dunrong6Li guonian5
Zhou Haitao9Pan Liuxian6Que Mingkun5
Table
Table 3. High-frequency authors of Private College Research.
Table 3. High-frequency authors of Private College Research.
Serial NumberNameIssuance FrequencyHighest Cited LiteratureCitation Frequency
1Wang Yitao23Is education a public product?—Questioning a popular view99
2Xu Xuqing15Faculty construction: the foundation of sustainable development of private colleges61
3Que Haibao13Analysis and countermeasures on the construction of teaching staff in independent colleges37
4Dong Shengzu10Exploring “mixed ownership” in the field of Education: connotation, pattern and strategy59
5Pan Maoyuan9The classification and orientation of colleges and universities919
6Chen Wuyuan9Popularization of higher education: Japan’s experience and lessons83
7Zhou Haitao9An investigation and analysis of the students’ sense of gain in private colleges and universities in China111
8Luo Kun8The realization of industry-university-institute cooperation in local universities from the perspective of collaborative innovation50
9Liu Juqin8Reform the talent training program and cultivate high-quality applied talents61
10Bo Yun7Research on the funding policy of private higher education in Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines23
Table
Table 4. Top 10 Journals of Private College Research in Different Dimensions.
Table 4. Top 10 Journals of Private College Research in Different Dimensions.
RankNumber of Documents IssuedCitation FrequencyDownloads
1Education Development Research (12.01%)Education Development Research (14.37%)Education Development Research (12.97%)
2Higher Education in China (8.29%)Higher Education Research (12.03%)Higher Education Research (11.14%)
3Higher Education Research (5.37%)Higher Education in China (11.37%)Higher Education in China (7.60%)
4Jiangsu Higher Education (5.04%)China Higher Education Research (5.75%)China Higher Education Research (6.11%)
5China Higher Education Research (5.04%)Jiangsu Higher Education (5.06%)Education Research (4.50%)
6Higher Education Exploration (3.86%)Education Research (4.47%)Jiangsu Higher Education (3.87%)
7Heilongjiang Higher Education Research (3.72%)Higher Engineering Education Research (3.52%)Higher Education Exploration (3.40%)
8Modern Education Management (3.16%)Education and Economy (2.50%)Higher Engineering Education Research (3.12%)
9Higher Engineering Education Research (2.83%)Higher Education Exploration (2.44%)Heilongjiang Higher Education Research (2.45%)
10Journal of National Institute of Education Administration (2.40%)Heilongjiang Higher Education Research (2.21%)Modern Education Management (2.43%)
Table
Table 5. Pearson Correlation Analysis and Test.
Table 5. Pearson Correlation Analysis and Test.
DimensionPearson Correlation Coefficient rSignificance (Bi-Side) P
Cited Frequency0.9740.005
Number of Downloads0.9510.005
Number of Documents Issued0.9480.005
Table
Table 6. Influence and Attention of Relative Citation Volume and Download Volume of Journals in Different Quadrants.
Table 6. Influence and Attention of Relative Citation Volume and Download Volume of Journals in Different Quadrants.
ItemDescriptionMore than 1Equal to 1Less than 1
Relative Citations of JournalsIt refers to the ratio of the average citation frequency of a journal in a subject field to that of all journals in the same field.The cited frequency of this journal is higher than that of all journals in this field, and it is in a high influential position.The citation frequency of the journal is equal to the average of The citation frequencies of all journals in the same subject field, which is at the level of moderate influence.Indicating that it is at a low level of influence.
Relative Downloads of JournalsIt refers to the ratio of the average downloads of a journal in a subject area to that of all journals in the same area.The download volume of this journal is higher than that of all journals in this field, and it is in a high attention position.The download volume of this journal is equal to the average value of all journals in the same subject area, which is at the level of moderate attention.Indicating that it is in a neglected position.
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Kuang, Z.; Jia, Y.; Yang, J. Scientometrics-Based Research Status and Hot Topics Analysis of Chinese Private Colleges under Policy Guidance. Sustainability 2023, 15, 646. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010646

AMA Style

Kuang Z, Jia Y, Yang J. Scientometrics-Based Research Status and Hot Topics Analysis of Chinese Private Colleges under Policy Guidance. Sustainability. 2023; 15(1):646. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010646

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Kuang, Zhongqin, Yan Jia, and Jun Yang. 2023. "Scientometrics-Based Research Status and Hot Topics Analysis of Chinese Private Colleges under Policy Guidance" Sustainability 15, no. 1: 646. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15010646

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