Abstract
Using bibliographic records from the Science Citation Index, the paper examines the publication of South African scientists. The analysis shows that collaboration research in South Africa has been growing steadily and the scientists are highly oriented towards collaborative rather than individualistic research. International collaboration is preferred to domestic collaboration while publication seems to be a decisive factor in collaboration. The paper also looks at the collaboration dimensions of partnering countries, sectors and disciplines, and examines how collaboration can be predicted by certain publication variables. Characteristic features are evident in both the degree and nature of collaboration which can be predicted by the number of countries involved, number of partners and the fractional count of papers.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Anuradha, K. T., Urs, S. R. (2007), Bibliometric indicators of Indian research collaboration patterns: A correspondence analysis. Scientometrics, 71: 179–189.
Arvanitis, R., Waast, R., Gaillard, J. (2000), Science in Africa: a bibliometric panorama using PASCAL database. Scientometrics, 47: 457–473.
Beaver, D. D., Rosen, R. (1978), Studies in scientific collaboration, part I: the professional origins of scientific co-authorship. Scientometrics, 1: 65–84.
Bonaccorsi, A., Daraio, C., Simar, L. (2006), Advanced indicators of productivity of universities: An application of robust nonparametric methods to Italian data. Scientometrics, 66: 389–410.
Bozeman, B., Boardman, C. (2003), Research and Technology Collaboration and Linkages: Implications from two U.S. Case Studies. Georgia Institute of Technology, Georgia, http://www.csta-cest.ca/files/usa.pdf Accessed 24 April 2007.
Bozeman, B., Corley, E. (2004), Scientists’ collaboration strategies: implications for scientific and technical human capital. Research Policy, 33: 599–616.
Duque, R. B., Sooryamoorthy, R., Ynalvez, M., Mbatia, P., Dzorgbo, D.-B., Shrum, W. (2005), Collaboration paradox: scientific productivity, the internet, and problems of research in developing areas. Social Studies of Science, 35: 755–785.
Etzkowitz, H., Leydesdorff, L. (2000), The dynamic of innovation: from national systems and “mode 2” to a triple helix of university-industry-government relations. Research Policy, 29: 109–123.
Farahat, H. (2002), Authorship patterns in agricultural sciences in Egypt. Scientometrics, 55: 157–170.
Frame, D. J., Narin, F., Carpenter, M. P. (1977), The distribution of world science. Social Studies of Science, 7: 501–516.
Frame, J. D., Carpenter, M. P. (1979), International research collaboration. Social Studies of Science, 9: 481–497.
Glänzel, W., Lange, C. D. (2002), A distributional approach to multinationality measures of international scientific collaboration. Scientometrics, 54: 75–89.
Guan, J., Ma, N. (2007), A bibliometric study of China’s semiconductor literature compared with other major Asian countries. Scientometrics, 70: 107–124.
Hicks, D. M., Katz, J. S. (1996), Where is science going? Science, Technology and Human Values, 21: 379–406.
Ingwersen, P., Jacobs, D. (2004), South African research in selected scientific areas: status 1981–2000. Scientometrics, 59: 405–423.
Jacobs, D., Ingwersen, P. (2000), A bibliometric study of the publication patterns in the sciences of South African scholars 1981–96. Scientometrics, 47: 75–93.
Katz, J. S., Martin, B. R. (1997), What is research collaboration? Research Policy, 26: 1–18.
Kim, K.-W. (2006), Measuring international research collaboration of peripheral countries: taking the context into consideration. Scientometrics, 66: 231–240.
Landry, R., Amara, N. (1998), The impact of transaction costs on the institutional structuration of collaborative academic research. Research Policy, 27: 901–913.
Landry, R., Traore, N., Godin, B. (1996), An econometric analysis of the effect of collaboration on academic research productivity. Higher Education, 32: 283–301.
Laudel, G. (2002), Collaboration and reward: what do we measure by co-authorships? Research Evaluation, 11: 3–15.
Lee, S., Bozeman, B. (2005), The impact of research collaboration on scientific productivity. Social Studies of Science, 35: 673–702.
Ma, N., Guan, J. (2005), An exploratory study on collaboration profiles of Chinese publications in molecular biology. Scientometrics, 65: 343–355.
May, R. M. (1997), The scientific wealth of nations. Science, 275: 793–796.
Melin, G. (2000), Pragmatism and self-organization research collaboration on the individual level. Research Policy, 29: 31–40.
Narvaez-Berthelemot, N., Russel, J. M., Arvanitis, R., Waast, R., Gaillard, J. (2002), Science in Africa: an overview of mainstream scientific output. Scientometrics, 54: 229–241.
Newman, M. E. J. (2001), The structure of scientific collaboration networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 98: 404–409.
Newman, M. E. J. (2004), Coauthorship networks and patterns of scientific collaboration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 101: 5200–5205.
Pao, M. L. (1982), Collaboration in computations musicology. Journal of the American Society for Information Sciences, 33: 38–43.
Pelz, D., Andrews, F. (1966), Scientists in Organizations: Productive Climates of Research and Development. John Wiley, New York.
Pouris, A. (2003), South Africa’s research publication record: the last ten years. South African Journal of Science, 99: 425–428.
Price, D. J. D. S. (1963), Little Science, Big Science. Columbia University Press, New York.
Price, D. J. D. S., Beaver, D. (1966), Collaboration in an invisible college. American Psychologist, 21: 1011–1018.
Sooryamoorthy, R., Shrum, W. (2007), Does the internet promote collaboration and productivity? Evidence from the scientific community in South Africa. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 12: 733–751.
Sooryamoorthy, R., Duque, R. B., Ynalvez, M. A., Shrum, W. (2007), Scientific collaboration and the Kerala model: does the internet make a difference? Journal of International Development, 19: 982–996.
Tijssen, R. J. W. (2007), Africa’s contribution to the worldwide research literature: new analytical perspectives, trends, and performance indicators. Scientometrics, 71: 303–327.
Wagner, C. S., Leyesdorff, L. (2005), Mapping the network of global science: comparing international coauthorships from 1990 to 2000. International Journal of Technology and Globalization, 1: 185–208.
Zitt, K, Bassecoulard, E., Okubo, Y. (2000), Shadows of the past in international cooperation: collaboration profiles of the top five producers of science. Scientometrics, 47: 627–657.
Zuckerman, H. (1967), Nobel laureates in science: patterns of productivity, collaboration and authorship. American Sociological Review, 32: 391–403.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Sooryamoorthy, R. Collaboration and publication: How collaborative are scientists in South Africa?. Scientometrics 80, 419–439 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2074-z
Received:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-008-2074-z