17ibility in the international scientific community, governments across Asia are
making consistent efforts to promote institutions with a greater or lesser degree of
resemblance to the American model of the research university (Yang 2015 ;
UNESCO 2014 ). In addition, they are replacing manufacturing processes that add
little value (such as the mere assemblage of products designed elsewhere; Locke
and Wellhausen 2014 ) to transform their economies into innovative, knowledge-
driven systems. Higher- education researchers based in these countries have a key
role to play in explicating and contributing to this development, although national
higher-education research communities in Asia have not always prospered, due to
various factors related to resources, traditions, mentalities, rewards and institu-
tional environments (e.g. Chen 2015 ; Chan and Chan 2015 ).
Although national higher-education communities play a key role in making poli-
cies and elucidating the development of national higher-education systems, the fail-
ure of these national communities to contribute to the international scientific
community is an increasingly urgent problem (Yonezawa 2015 ; Jung 2015 ). In a
globalised world in which geopolitical and scientific communities influence each
other and are increasingly connected, policymakers look for benchmarks to com-
pare performance (Voegtle et al. 2011 ). In addition, the media today share news
from all over the world, and curiosity about the dynamics of higher-education devel-
opment in Asia is mounting (e.g. Marginson 2011 ). Audiences across the world, not
just higher-education researchers and policy makers, are interested in learning about
key developments in Asia’s higher-education systems. For example, it remains
unclear how Asian governments are reorganising their countries’ education systems
and institutions; what strategies are being adopted in Asia to internationalise educa-
tion, to establish knowledge hubs, to build research capacity, networking and col-
laboration, to use and expand resources and to increase access; and which learning
styles are being fostered to improve students’ learning experiences and graduates’
employability (e.g. Mok 2016 ; Postiglione 2014 ). The global research community
has shown clear interest in these questions, as demonstrated by the following two
examples. An article about East Asia, Singapore and the rise of the Confucian edu-
cation model by Simon Marginson, an Australian researcher currently based in the
United Kingdom, received 76 citations between its publication date in 2011 and
October 2016. A 2009 article on the challenges facing higher education in Asia and
the Pacific region by Jung Cheol Shin, a South Korean researcher, and Grant
Harman, an Australian researcher, has garnered 61 citations since its publication in
- This rapid accumulation of citations reflects the speed with which articles on
Asian higher-education systems have drawn attention and interest worldwide.
At this juncture, two key questions are as follows. Who is publishing internation-
ally on higher education in Asia? Who is letting the world know what is happening
in Asian higher education, how it is happening and why? Answers to these questions
are suggested by a very simple scientometric analysis. A search of international
higher-education journals indexed in the Scopus database for articles with the key-
word ‘Asia’ in their titles, abstracts or keywords reveals that the researchers who
write the most about higher education in Asia are affiliated with institutions in
Australia and the United States. That two of the most frequently cited articles on the
2 Higher-Education Researchers in Asia: The Risks of Insufficient Contribution...