The Continuing Growth of Global Cooperation Networks in Research: A Conundrum for National Governments

Abstract

Global collaboration continues to grow as a share of all scientific cooperation, measured as coauthorships of peer-reviewed, published papers. The percent of all scientific papers that are internationally coauthored has more than doubled in 20 years, and they account for all the growth in output among the scientifically advanced countries. Emerging countries, particularly China, have increased their participation in global science, in part by doubling their spending on R&D; they are increasingly likely to appear as partners on internationally coauthored scientific papers. Given the growth of connections at the international level, it is helpful to examine the phenomenon as a communications network and to consider the network as a new organization on the world stage that adds to and complements national systems. When examined as interconnections across the globe over two decades, a global network has grown denser but not more clustered, meaning there are many more connections but they are not grouping into exclusive ‘cliques’. This suggests that power relationships are not reproducing those of the political system. The network has features an open system, attracting productive scientists to participate in international projects. National governments could gain efficiencies and influence by developing policies and strategies designed to maximize network benefits—a model different from those designed for national systems.

Travel bans and scientific mobility: utility of asymmetry and affinity indexes to inform science policy

“…Collaboration in science highlighted increased partnerships between scientific advanced and emergent countries in terms of co-authoring scientific papers (Adams 2013), as well as at the global level (Wagner et al 2015). That translates in strong benefits for participating countries (Glänzel 2001) and institutions (Gazni et al 2012) in terms of citations.…”

Associação entre formação de doutores no exterior e internacionalização da base de conhecimentos: estudo de casos

“…No campo científico, essas competências são essenciais para produzir conhecimento em redes de colaboração internacional que articulam os principais centros de ciência do mundo (WAGNER, 2004(WAGNER, , 2015. Há pelo menos duas décadas, o número e o nível de interconexão entre esses centros têm se ampliado, abarcando países não tradicionais, tais como os do BRICKS (Brasil, Rússia, Índia, China e Coreia do Sul) (ADAMS; PENDLEBURY; STEMBRIDGE, 2013).…”

Do central country authors of international co-authored publication networks obtain a high research impact?

“…The percentage of all scientific articles that are internationally co-authored has more than doubled in twenty years (Wagner, Park and Leydesdorff 2015;Nguyen, Ho-Le and Le 2017). The number of a country's international co-authored publications is related to its scientific capacity, such as the number of trained science, technology, engineering, and mathematics workers (Ynalvez and Shrum 2011;Mêgnigbêto 2013).…”

“…Given the growth of connections at the international level, it is helpful to examine the phenomenon as a communications network and to consider the network as a new organization on the world stage that adds to and complements national systems (Wagner, Park, and Leydesdorff 2015).…”