International visibility of mainland China Translation Studies community: A scientometric study

This article presents a scientometric analysis of Mainland China Translation Studies (TS) scholars' international visibility. The analysis was mainly based on articles published in 13 international TS journals indexed in the SSCI or A&HCI databases between 2005 and 2013. Publication counting, citation analysis, editorial board composition analysis, and word analysis were used to investigate mainland Chinese TS scholars' international productivity, impact, and presence rate in the editorial boards of international TS journals, as well as the thematic landscape of their international contributions. Data analysis indicated that mainland Chinese TS scholars had low international visibility, reflected in their low international productivity, impact, and presence rate in the editorial boards of international TS journals, and that the thematic landscape of their research was different from that of the international TS community. The data also suggested that TS scholars from English-dominant and economically advanced countries had much higher international visibility. Implications were discussed with a view to changing the current state of low visibility. The current study provides not only an overview of the contributions of mainland Chinese TS scholars to the international TS community but also insights for future studies.