Measurement and analysis of collaboration ability: The collaborative rate, collaborative breadth and collaborative depth

Collaboration is an important way for scientific research. It attracts a large number of researchers, and forms a series of measurement evaluation indicators. The purpose of this study further enriches the evaluation system of collaboration and provides new indicators to measure collaboration ability at author level in order to identify the most appropriate potential partners.

The papers published during the period 2006-2015 and collected from Web of Science Core Collection in library and information science (LIS) are regarded as data source. And it defines and measures the collaborative rate, collaborative breadth and collaborative depth at author level.

The authors’ research shows that collaboration is an important way in the scientific research activities in LIS. Unfortunately, most author’s collaborative breadth and the collaborative depth are lower than mean. Therefore, the author’s scope and stability of collaboration is further strengthened in future. Authors can identify the most appropriate potential partners according to author’s research purpose and the region of the collaborative breadth – the collaborative depth.

It further enriches the evaluation system of collaboration and provides new indicators to evaluate collaboration ability at author level. Authors can identify the most appropriate potential partners according to author’s collaboration ability.