Zhao Rongying, Wang Xu, Qi Yongkang
[Purpose/Significance]This paper studied the structural features,internal relations,evolutionary laws and evolutionary reasons of the cooperation network of world-class universities in China,which could provide references for the construction of world-class universities in China.[Method/Process]Based on the data of co-authored papers of 42 universities in WoS from 2013 to 2017,this paper constructed the frequency matrix and Salton exponent matrix of scientific cooperation over the years.Then,combining methods of social network analysis and correlation analysis,with the help of visual software,this paper was divided into three evolutional perspectives:the whole network,the individual network and the local network.In addition,this paper revealed and analyzed the network structure characteristics,cooperation intensity and evolution law of university scientific cooperation relationship.[Result/Conclusion]Firstly,the number of publications,co-authored articles and cooperation rate of universities were increasing in general;Secondly,possession or control of scientific resources had strong positive correlation with scientific research output in universities;Thirdly,universities attached importance to strong alliance and complementary advantages.Meanwhile,the scale of core network was gradually expanding,and the trend of gathering of universities to the network center was increasing.What's more,the control degree,influence and indispensible of single university for the overall cooperative network was decreasing;Then,education' development,fund support,the principle of least effort,the Matthew effect principle,and the specialty of strong subject were main reasons for the evolution of scientific cooperation network of universities;Finally,some suggestions were put forward for scientific cooperation in universities.