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Key factors and considerations in the assessment of international collaboration: a case study for Austria and six countries

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Abstract

This bibliometric study on the collaboration of Austria and six target countries (Slovenia, Hungary, Czech Republic, Denmark, Switzerland and Israel) reveals the importance of differentiation between the bilateral and multilateral contingents in the assessment of international scientific collaboration. For this purpose a “degree of bilaterality” (DB) and a “citation degree of bilaterality” (CDB) are introduced. In our findings the DB and the CDB have values lower than 1/3 and 1/5, respectively. Therefore, the total collaboration is mostly shaped in its volume and impact by the multilateral contingent. Regarding the impact estimation of the collaboration publication output, a multi-faceted approach was used. It is recommended to separately analyze the following three aspects: the un-cited range, the average range and the excellence range. Considering different country specific parameters the total number of publications and citations were resized for each type of collaboration and the results discussed. Only a very weak correlation between ‘times cited’ and the number of affiliations or authors was observed at publication level. Neither the number of authors or affiliations determines impact increase. Rather internationalisation and cooperation seem to be the crucial factors.

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Acknowledgments

This study is the by-product of a data analysis performed in cooperation with and supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF). The authors thank Ambros Wernisch and Steve Reding for their support with compiling the data, and Prof. Christoph Kratky and Dr. Falk Reckling for their interesting suggestions.

An extended version of a paper presented at the 13th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, Durban (South Africa), 4–7 July 2011 (Gorraiz et al. 2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bibliometrics Department, Vienna University Library, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090, Vienna, Austria

    Juan Gorraiz & Christian Gumpenberger

  2. University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Gregor Mendel Straße 3, 1180, Vienna, Austria

    Ralph Reimann

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  1. Juan Gorraiz
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Correspondence to Juan Gorraiz.

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Gorraiz, J., Reimann, R. & Gumpenberger, C. Key factors and considerations in the assessment of international collaboration: a case study for Austria and six countries. Scientometrics 91, 417–433 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-011-0579-3

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