Organization and role of international collaboration in research production

Abstract

The prevalence of multi-national and cross-disciplinary collaborative in the production of knowledge defines modern science as a social enterprise that extends beyond political, social, and geographic boundaries. The purpose of this study was to assess global trends in the composition and impact of multinational research teams. By examining the bibliometric data of 3.7 million primary research articles published from 1975 to 2005, it was ascertained that the frequency and scale of international collaborations has increased globally. Of note, the publications of many countries associated with lower research output were more often consistently affiliated with other nations across the time frame studied. By analyzing the number of times a publication is cited, it was discovered that multinational research studies have a greater research impact than research without an international presence, although the number of affiliated nations does not strictly correlate with citations. Taken together, this study provides insight into the dynamics of research teams which may better inform us how scientific partnerships between countries may be fostered and which collaborations may be advantageous.