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. 2015 Jul 21;10(7):e0131816.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0131816. eCollection 2015.

The Continuing Growth of Global Cooperation Networks in Research: A Conundrum for National Governments

Caroline S Wagner  1 , Han Woo Park  2 , Loet Leydesdorff  3
Affiliations

The Continuing Growth of Global Cooperation Networks in Research: A Conundrum for National Governments

Caroline S Wagner et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

Global collaboration continues to grow as a share of all scientific cooperation, measured as coauthorships of peer-reviewed, published papers. The percent of all scientific papers that are internationally coauthored has more than doubled in 20 years, and they account for all the growth in output among the scientifically advanced countries. Emerging countries, particularly China, have increased their participation in global science, in part by doubling their spending on R&D; they are increasingly likely to appear as partners on internationally coauthored scientific papers. Given the growth of connections at the international level, it is helpful to examine the phenomenon as a communications network and to consider the network as a new organization on the world stage that adds to and complements national systems. When examined as interconnections across the globe over two decades, a global network has grown denser but not more clustered, meaning there are many more connections but they are not grouping into exclusive 'cliques'. This suggests that power relationships are not reproducing those of the political system. The network has features an open system, attracting productive scientists to participate in international projects. National governments could gain efficiencies and influence by developing policies and strategies designed to maximize network benefits-a model different from those designed for national systems.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. Counts of articles, reviews, and letters, 2011, integer and fractional counts (SCI data); the number of bi-lateral relations is based on the margin totals of the matrix of international collaborations.
Fig 2
Fig 2. Growth of internationally coauthored records and addresses, 1990, 2000, 2005, and 2011.
Fig 3
Fig 3. Map of 61 countries in terms of domestic distribution (red) or international distribution (green) providing the better indicator.
Source: Authors using SPSS v.21 (under the campus license of the university.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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