The complex interplay between international collaboration and scientific impact: evidence from the Scopus database

Cogent Education, vol. 12

Abstract

The widely held assumption that international collaboration boosts scientific impact oversimplifies a more complex relationship. This study examines how different levels of international collaboration affect the citation impact of the most productive countries and research fields, based on Scopus data from 1996 to 2017. Both field-normalized and non-normalized citation metrics are employed. While international collaboration and scientific impact are highly correlated under standard linear regression, such models fail to capture the skewed and heteroskedastic nature of citation distributions. To address this limitation, we apply pooled quantile regression with panel data covering 23 countries. Three key findings emerge: (i) Higher levels of international collaboration are generally associated with increased citation impact across quantiles. However, this effect varies substantially across disciplines, even among highly productive fields such as Medicine, Physics, Engineering, and Computer Science, suggesting that field-specific citation practices, rather than collaboration per se, may drive the observed differences; (ii) When using field-normalized metrics, the increasing effect of collaboration across quantiles largely disappears; (iii) Significant regional disparities emerge when controlling for geography through dummy variables. These findings challenge the validity of one-size-fits-all collaboration policies and underscore the importance of tailoring science strategies to each country’s research capacity and disciplinary strengths. The study offers actionable insights for evidence-based science and innovation policymaking.

Authors 4

1. Luís Borges

   Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) · Coordenação de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Science and Technology Policy, UNICAMP

   Science and Technology at the Brazilian Federal Agency for the Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES), Setor Bancário Norte

2. Bruno Brandão Fischer corresponding

   Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP) · North-West University

   Affiliation as printed

   School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, North-West University

3. Alysson Mazoni

   Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)

   Affiliation as printed

   Department of Science and Technology Policy, Institute of Geosciences, University of Campinas, Cidade Universitária, Campinas

4. Juan Pablo Bascur Aachen Centre for Science and Technology Studies

   Leiden University

   Affiliation as printed

   Center for Science and Technology Studies, University of Leiden