4. CONNECTING TO GLOBAL RESEARCH
4.3. International co-operation in science
Co-authorship of research publications provides a
direct measure of collaboration in science. Research
Single authorship measures scientific papers
publications may have a single author or two or more
with a single author. Single-institution co-
co-authors. Co-authorship may involve researchers in
authorship measures scientific papers with two
the same institution, in the same country, or in two or
or more authors of the same institution. Domes-
more countries. These indicators help to understand
tic co-authorship measures scientific articles
how knowledge is created among researchers and
with two or more authors from different institu-
how collaboration in science is changing.
tions in the same country. International co-
Collaboration among researchers in a single institu-
authorship measures scientific articles with two
tion was the major form of collaborative research until
or more authors from different countries. The
the end of the 1990s. However, the percentage of sin-
boundary between single-institution co-authorship
gle-institution co-authorship has been decreasing
and domestic co-authorship is not always clear,
over the last two decades.
as for example, when co-authors belong to dif-
Co-authorship, both domestic and international, has
ferent departments of same university. Here, the
grown in importance over the past decade. Domestic
classification is based upon the number of
co-authorship, i.e. collaboration by researchers of dif- addresses listed in each article.
ferent institutions in the same country, has been
Indicators of co-authorship draw attention to
increasing rapidly. It surpassed the share of single-
language barriers and geographical factors.
institution co-authorship in 1998 and has since been
However, these obstacles have diminished as
the most common form of scientific collaboration.
English has become the language most com-
International co-authorship has been growing as fast
monly used internationally among researchers.
as domestic co-authorship. In 2007, 21.9% of scientific
Furthermore physical distance between
articles involved international co-authorship, a figure
researchers is likely to have some correlation
three times higher than in 1985. Increases in domestic
with the ratio of co-authorship, although the
and international co-authorship point to the crucial
effect of information and communication tech-
role of interaction among researchers as a way to
nology on knowledge flows has undoubtedly
diversify their sources of knowledge.
facilitated distance collaboration.
As a general trend, scientific knowledge production is
shifting from individual to group, from single to mul-
tiple institutions, and from national to international.
Researchers are increasingly networked across
Sources
national and organisation borders.
The degree of international collaboration varies. Large
National Institute of Science and Technology Policy in
countries tend to engage in less international collabo-
Japan (2008),  Science and Technology Indicators ,
ration. Large European countries (France, Germany
data updated in 2008 for the 5th edition, July.
and the United Kingdom) conduct more collaborative
OECD calculations, based on Scopus Custom Data,
work than the United States and Asian countries.
Elsevier, July 2009.
Going further
Measures of co-authorship
Igami, M. and A. Saka (2007),  Capturing the Evolving
Nature of Science, the Development of New Scientific
Four types of authorship of scientific articles are
Indicators and the Mapping of Science , OECD Sci-
analysed: single authorship, single-institution
ence,Technology and Industry Working Papers 2007/1,
co-authorship, domestic co-authorship and
OECD, Paris, www.oecd.org/sti/working-papers.
international co-authorship. The analysis is
based on the Science Citation Index on CD-ROM
(1981-2007) provided by Thomson Scientific and
Figure notes
analysed by the National Institute of Science and
Technology Policy in Japan.
Data are based on research articles in natural and
medical sciences and engineering.
OECD SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY SCOREBOARD 2009 © OECD 2009
114
4. CONNECTING TO GLOBAL RESEARCH
4.3. International co-operation in science
Trends in the co-operation in science, Share of co-authored scientific articles,
1985-2007 1982-87, 1992-97, 2002-07
As a percentage of total
Domestic co-authorship Single author
Single-institution co-authorship Single-institution co-authorship
International co-authorship Domestic co-authorship
Single author International co-authorship
Thousands %
300 50
250
40
200
30
150
20
100
10
50
0
0
1982-1987 1992-1997 2002-2007
1 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/745740774835 1 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/745744166773
Share of internationally co-authored scientific articles, 2007
As a percentage of total articles
%
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
France Germany United Canada Italy Russian United Japan China World
Kingdom Federation States
1 2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/745766770745
OECD SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND INDUSTRY SCOREBOARD 2009 © OECD 2009
115
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7
9
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3
5
7
9
1
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