Mediation Effect of Journal Indicator on Correlation between Research Collaboration and Citation among Articles fromThai Nursing Institutions

Abstract

This study focuses on examining the research collaboration between Nursing faculties in Thailand and international nursing institutions and general characteristics of Thai nursing research papers published in international journals covered on Scopus database, and comparing the number of the first 3-year citation counts, the average of citation rate per year and SJR indicators of the journals published in Thailand with those published by the international research collaboration.  Another important objective of this research is to determine the impact of journal mediation indicators on the relationship of the international research collaboration and citation using mediation analysis and Sobel test to assess the mediation effect.

             The findings from the review of 346 research articles published by the international research collaboration show that their average citation rate per year and the first 3-year citation counts are statistically higher than those of the research articles published by domestic research collaboration at  = 1.51  v  = 1.24 and  = 4.50 and  = 3.65 respectively.  The research articles from the collaboration with the top 10 highest H-index countries tended to have the first 3-year citation counts higher than those produced by other groups (  = 4.69, SD=5,73).  The analysis of mediation indicates that the international research collaboration will indirect influence via indictors of journal quality (SJR) with Sobel test as Z      = 3.457; P = 0.0005.  The research findings reflect the structural relationship and benefits of implementing the research collaboration with foreign research institutions.  This will have impacts on getting the articles published in high quality journals and on citation counts which are considered key indicators of research quality of both national and international education institutions.