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Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations

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  • Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez
  • Cassidy R Sugimoto
  • Vincent Larivière

Abstract

National contributions to science are influenced by a number of factors, including economic capacity, national scientific priorities, science policy, and institutional settings and cultures. Nations do not have equal opportunities to access the global scientific market, and therefore, often seek out international partners with complementary resources and expertise. This study aims at investigating national collaboration strategies, with a focus on research leadership—measured through corresponding authorship—and its relationship with scientific impact. Results show that countries with higher R&D investments are more scientifically independent, and confirm that international collaboration is positively related to citation impact. However, leadership in international collaboration is inversely related with a countries’ share of international collaboration and there is a very little relationship between citation impact and international leadership. For instance, most countries—and particularly those that have fewer resources—have higher scientific impact when they are not leading. This suggests that, despite increasing global participation in science, most international collaborations are asymmetrical, and that the research system remains structured around a few dominate nations.

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  • Zaida Chinchilla-Rodríguez & Cassidy R Sugimoto & Vincent Larivière, 2019. "Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 14(6), pages 1-18, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0218309
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218309
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    8. Cheng Zhe & Xingfu Lu & Xiong Xiong, 2021. "Analysis of Influence Factors on the Quality of International Collaboration Research in the Field of Social Sciences and Humanities: The Case of Chinese World Class Universities (2015–2019)," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(4), pages 21582440211, October.
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    12. Elizabeth S. Vieira, 2023. "The influence of research collaboration on citation impact: the countries in the European Innovation Scoreboard," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(6), pages 3555-3579, June.
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