Collaboration

The number or proportion of international co-authored publications can provide one indicator of international collaboration. Most commonly, international databases define international co-authored publications as those with at least two authors who are affiliated with at least two different countries. The country-specific information in publications can also be used to describe the where in the world a unit’s collaboration partners are located.

The number or share of co-publications made with companies can be used as one indicator of corporate collaboration. In most cases, international citation databases determine publications with at least two authors, one of whom is affiliated with a company, as corporate co-publications. Publication data can also be used to describe the businesses with which a unit has published most frequently. 

The publication data can also be used to describe which individual organisations are the most important partners of the unit in question. 

Responsible use

• Forms of collaboration may vary a great deal between disciplines. Opportunities for international or corporate collaboration also vary.
• Not all collaboration is apparent in publications.
• There are significant uncertainties related to measuring the amount of corporate collaboration, as the methods used by databases may not recognise corporate affiliations very well.