Research collaboration networks in Latin American geography education

Abstract

The current development of science is characterized by a global trend of
scientific collaboration (SC). However, this growth has been mostly linked to
intra-national cooperation. Several factors including geographic, institutional,
and social proximities have been identified as key for promoting or hinder
collaboration among scholars. Based on these premises, the present study
analyses the co-authorship and affiliation relationships among geography
education researchers in Latin America, exploring through a general trend
and social network analysis, the characteristics of SC in geography education.
For this purpose, 1774 articles (922 co-authored) published within the region
were included as part of the data used for understanding the structure of SC.
The results showed an increasing and dominant pattern of co-authoring in
the region, but mostly developed at the local and national scale, with scarce
intra-regional research. Moreover, the network analysis showed that there are
some institutions with a dominant role in the production of research, and a
loose network structure of research that could foster diverse perspectives on
the field. These findings offer opportunities for thinking about how to enhance
future SC processes in the region to strengthen the development of geography
education research based on a regional collaborative approach.