PurposeThis study aimed to investigate the multiple collaboration types, quantitatively evaluate the publication trends and review the performance of institutions or countries (regions) across the world in COPD research.Materials and methodsScientometric methods and social network analysis were used to survey the development of publication trends and understand current collaboration in the field of COPD research based on the Web of Science publications during the past 18 years.ResultsThe number of publications developed through different collaboration types has increased. Growth trends indicate that the percentage of papers authored through multinational and domestic multi-institutional collaboration (DMIC) have also increased. However, the percentage of intra-institutional collaboration and single-authored (SA) studies has reduced. The papers that produced the highest academic impact result from international collaboration. The second highest academic impact papers are produced by DMIC. Out of the three, the papers that are produced by SA studies have the least amount of impact upon the scientific community. A handful of internationally renowned institutions not only take the leading role in the development of the research within their country (region) but also play a crucial role in international research collaboration in COPD. Both the amount of papers produced and the amount of cooperation that occurs in each study are disproportionally distributed between high-income countries (regions) and low-income countries (regions). Growing attention has been generated toward research on COPD from more and more different academic domains.ConclusionDespite the rapid development in COPD research, collaboration in the field of COPD research still has room to grow, especially between different institutions or countries (regions), which would promote the progress of global COPD research.