What large-scale publication and citation data tell us about international research collaboration in Europe: changing national patterns in global contexts

Abstract

This study analyzes the unprecedented growth of international research collaboration (IRC) in Europe during the period 2009-2018 in terms of co-authorship and citation distribution of globally indexed publications. The results reveal the dynamics of this change, as growing IRC moves European science systems away from institutional collaboration, with stable and strong national collaboration. Domestic output has remained flat. The growth in publications in major European systems is almost entirely attributable to internationally co-authored papers. A comparison of trends within the four complementary collaboration modes clearly reveals that the growth of European science is driven solely by internationally co-authored papers. With the emergence of global network science, which diminishes the role of national policies in IRC and foregrounds the role of scientists, the individual scientist's willingness to collaborate internationally is central to advancing IRC in Europe. Scientists collaborate internationally when it enhances their academic prestige, scientific recognition, and access to research funding, as indicated by the credibility cycle, prestige maximization, and global science models. The study encompassed 5.5 million Scopus-indexed articles, including 2.2 million involving international collaboration.

Internationalists and locals: international research collaboration in a resource-poor system

“…Polish science is also characterized by a high level of intra-institutional collaboration (28.1%)-that is, publications whose authors are affiliated to the same institution. In 2018, this figure exceeded 25% in only three European countries: Poland, Lithuania, and Slovakia (see a comparative analysis of 28 European system in 2009-2018 in Kwiek 2020).…”

“…The omnipresence of internationalists changes how science is perceived, and non-collaboration is increasingly rare, even in the traditionally sole-authored humanities. In that context, Poland is an interesting outlier, with the lowest share of internationally co-authored publications in Europe (Kwiek 2020;Scopus 2020) and one of the lowest shares of scientists reporting international collaboration in Europe.…”

An internationalised Europe and regionally focused Americas: A network analysis of higher education studies

“…The number of research institutes, journals and study programmes specifically on higher education is indeed limited, especially outside the United States and the United Kingdom, causing the scholarship on higher education to be spread out across other disciplines (e.g., management and sociology) and thus highly disconnected (Kehm, 2015). Against this backdrop, few studies have examined the internationalisation of higher education studies by looking at international co-authorships (Avdeev, 2019;Jung & Horta, 2013, 2015Kuzhabekova et al, 2015;Kwiek, 2020;Lovakov & Yudkevich, 2021;Tight, 2007Tight, , 2014. These studies explain internationalisation processes by focussing on elements such as the linguistic and geographical proximity of authors or the maturity of national higher education communities of research (Avdeev, 2019;Kwiek, 2020;Tight, 2014).…”

“…Against this backdrop, few studies have examined the internationalisation of higher education studies by looking at international co‐authorships (Avdeev, 2019; Jung & Horta, 2013, 2015; Kuzhabekova et al, 2015; Kwiek, 2020; Lovakov & Yudkevich, 2021; Tight, 2007, 2014). These studies explain internationalisation processes by focussing on elements such as the linguistic and geographical proximity of authors or the maturity of national higher education communities of research (Avdeev, 2019; Kwiek, 2020; Tight, 2014). However, these factors are exogenous to the co‐authorship network, i.e., they do not consider the role of the position or relationships among actors (scholars/universities), which have thus far been mostly overlooked in the higher education literature.…”

The prestige economy of higher education journals: a quantitative approach

“…Consequently, while the top higher education journals are increasingly flooded with submissions, journals closer to the bottom of the "pecking order" fight to attract authors. The reason is simple: location matters for individuals (Mouritzen and Opstrup 2020), institutions (Sutherland 2018), and countries (Bak and Kim 2019;Kwiek 2020a), subject to incessant ranking and assessment procedures-not everywhere, but in many countries.…”