STI Working Papers SeriesThis Working Papers Series of the OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry is designed to make available to a wider readership selected studies prepared by staff in the Directorate or by outside consultants working on OECD projects. The papers included in the series are of a technical and analytical nature and deal with issues of data, methodology and empirical analysis in the areas of work of DSTI. The Working Papers are generally available only in their original language -English or French -with a summary in the other.Comment on the papers is invited, and should be sent to Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry, OECD, 2 rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France.The opinions expressed in these papers are the full responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the OECD or of the governments of its Member countries. Copyright OECD, 1997Application for permission to reproduce or translate all or part of this publication should be made to: Head of Publications Service, OECD, 2 rue André Pascal, 75775 Paris Cedex 16, France.3 Bibliometric indicators and analysis of research systems: Methods and examplesYoshiko Okubo* This report -linked to the technical documents of the OECD manuals for the measurement of R&D activities ("Frascati Family") -presents the essential elements of bibliometrics and its application to the analysis of research systems. Bibliometrics is based on the enumeration and statistical analysis of scientific output in the form of articles, publications, citations, patents and other, more complex indicators.It is an important tool in evaluating research activities, laboratories and scientists, as well as the scientific specialisations and performance of countries. The report, having set the background for the development of bibliometrics, presents the databases on which bibliometrics is built, as well as the principal indicators used. Twenty-five examples are presented at the end of the document, illustrating the various uses of bibliometric methods for analysing research systems. These indicators measure scientific output, by counting the number of papers; the impact of papers on scientific disciplines, by counting the number of co-citations; the extent of international co-operation, as evidenced by joint signatures; the scientific content of patents, etc.

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Intra-European S&T coauthorships doubled in the last decade, but the collaborative network was surprisingly unaffected. The strongly voluntarist process in the European Union seems far from making collaboration unavoidable or homogeneous. We address the role of frontier regions in the collaborative network, taking France as an example. The study confirms the openness of border regions to their close neighbors abroad, but their level of preference for other regions within the same country is higher. We argue that internationalization/Europeanizationin science develops much more slowly than generally thought, and R&D programs aiming to develop multinational collaboration may be effective in spurring collaborative efforts, without greatly changing the patterns of durable scientific relationships established through producing coauthored articles.