Does “birds of a feather flock together” matter—Evidence from a longitudinal study on US–China scientific collaboration

China's status as a scientific power, particularly in the emerging area of nanotechnology, has become widely accepted in the global scientific community. The role of knowledge spillover in China's nanotechnology development is generally assumed, albeit without much convincing evidence. Very little has been investigated on the different mechanisms of knowledge spillover. Utilizing both cross-sectional data and longitudinal data of 77 Chinese nanoscientists’ publications, this study aims to differentiate individual effects from the effect of international collaboration on the research performance of Chinese researchers. The study finds evidence in support of the “birds of a feather flock together” argument – that China's best scientists collaborate at international level. It also finds that collaboration across national boundaries has a consistently positive effect on China's nano research quality with a time-decaying pattern. Language turns out to be the most influential factor impacting the quality or visibility of Chinese nano research. Policy implications on research evaluation, human capital management, and public research and development allocation are also discussed in the end.

► This article utilizes both cross-sectional data and a unique panel publication dataset to explore factors influencing research quality.
► “Birds of a feather flock together” does matter, but not the one counts most.
► International collaboration positively impacts China's nanotechnology research quality, but such premium diminished over time.
► The research discloses a discrepancy of regression results of collaboration on research quality measured by journal impact factor and individual paper citations.