Effects of national affiliations and international collaboration on scientific findings: The case of transboundary air pollution in Northeast Asia

Abstract

In Northeast Asia, the debate among key policy actors regarding air pollution attribution is influenced by the issue’s political sensitivity, but it could also be the result of variance in the scientific research. For example, we know that the springtime winds carry desert-originating dust laden with contaminants from industry and energy production out of China eastward to the Korean peninsula and Japan, but domestic contribution from South Korea and Japan must also be recognized. Science would be politicized when scientific findings are handpicked and argued over by politicians, advocacy groups, and pundits, leading key actors, including the general public, to prioritize particular results over others. In this paper we examine whether the atmospheric science literature produces research that varies depending upon funding source and international research collaboration. We survey 174 published atmospheric science studies and use scientometric methods to show that researchers based in both Japan and South Korea focus significantly more on China as the source of transboundary air pollution. China’s researchers neither highlight China’s air pollution contributions nor minimize them.