Quantifying the benefits of international scientific collaboration

Abstract

We analyze the benefits in terms of scientific impact deriving from international collaboration, examining both those for a country when it collaborates and also those for the other countries when they are collaborating with the former. The data show the more countries there are involved in the collaboration, the greater the gain in impact. Contrary to what we expected, the scientific impact of a country does not significantly influence the benefit it derives from collaboration, but does seem to positively influence the benefit obtained by the other countries collaborating with it. Although there was a weak correlation between these two classes of benefit, the countries with the highest impact were clear outliers from this correlation, tending to provide proportionally more benefit to their collaborating countries than they themselves obtained. Two surprising findings were the null benefit resulting from collaboration with Iran, and the small benefit resulting from collaboration with the United States despite its high impact.

Psychological Research Collaboration and Visibility in Iberoamerica

“…This feature is probably related to the way products relate to the contexts in which they are produced. In the field of psychology, recent studies show that high productivity is concentrated in some countries; therefore the way these researchers collaborate could be used as a model for other countries to increase research (García-Martínez et al, 2012;Guerrero Bote et al, 2013). Geographical proximity and language could be seen as factors that could enhance communication.…”

“…In general, international cooperation is associated with higher visibility and higher impact. Various studies have tried to characterize the collaboration parameters by regions (Guerrero Bote et al, 2013). Thus, one collaboration analysis between China and other countries demonstrated that while the growth of the number of publications increases among the countries of high economic level, the impact of these publications does not increase in the same way (He, 2009).…”

“…We must consider variables such as authorship criteria, design, implementation and development, considering the contribution of each author to the final output (Allen, Brand, Scott, Altman, & Hlava, 2014;Shen & Barabasi, 2014). On the other hand, contexts such as participating institutions, area of expertise, and countries of the principal authors influence the impact of products as well (Guerrero Bote et al, 2013). In general, international cooperation is associated with higher visibility and higher impact.…”

“…Collaboration, however, occurs on different levels: locally, nationally or internationally (ChinchillaRodríguez, Vargas-Quesada, Hassan-Montero, González-Molina, & Moya-Anegón, 2009;Guerrero Bote, OlmedaGómez, & de Moya-Anegón, 2013). Studies indicate that internationalization is a factor related to the mechanism of collaboration (Chinchilla-Rodríguez et al, 2009;Guerrero Bote et al, 2013).…”

The Mathematics of Social Network Analysis: Metrics for Academic Social Networks

“…These collaborations help promote and proliferate research [13,14], therefore, they should be encouraged, supported and monitored. Studies [13,15,16,17] indicate that there is a direct relationship between scientific collaboration and creation of new knowledge. Coauthorship is one of these collaborations.…”