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Scientific collaboration between BRICS countries

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Abstract

The five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are among the most important developing countries. They are joined in an association to foster mutual development. In their meetings officials have made statements on the importance of scientific collaboration. The present article analyses scientific collaborations between the five countries using co-authorships of scientific products. Gross counts, Salton’s indexes and Jaccard coefficients, as well as probabilistic affinity indexes (PAI) are calculated to highlight the different dimensions of inter-BRIC collaborations, as well as their evolution. Collaboration with external actors, and in different scientific sub-areas, is also measured. Bilateral collaborations are heterogeneous. PAIs, which are size independent, show that the trends of inter-BRICS collaborations are stable with time. Heterogeneity across different scientific areas is also present. At the end of the article results are discussed, and policy suggestions are offered.

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Notes

  1. See Biggemann and Fam (2011) for a discussion on inequalities in BRIC countries, as well as on their growing importance.

  2. http://www.scopus.com/.

  3. Data for this introduction on Scopus have been retrieved via the webpage http://www.elsevier.com/online-tools/scopus/content-overview and subpages and documents therein (Accessed November 2013).

  4. For the years prior to 1990 also the production of DDR, Democratic Republic of Germany, is considered.

  5. In this case the number or iterations needed has been higher than in the former case, due to the strong differences with the values of collaborations of the US and Germany.

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Acknowledgments

The author wishes to thank: the CNR, National Research Council of Italy, for the Short Term Mobility grant which allowed him a Visiting Professorship at the University of Toronto—Munk School of Global Affairs; Prof. Shiri M. Breznitz of the Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, for her friendship and scientific collaboration; Prof. Janice G. Stein, Director of the Munk School, for welcoming me as visiting professor at her school; two anonymous referees for relevant comments that helped improving the present paper; Dr. Secondo Rolfo, Director of CNR-CERIS, for supporting this research field, as well as for his scientific guidance and collaboration; and all the colleagues at CNR-CERIS for their friendship and scientific collaboration. The usual disclaimer applies.

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  1. Research Institute on Sustainable Economic Growth, CNR-IRCrES, National Research Council of Italy, Via Real Collegio 30, 10024, Moncalieri, TO, Italy

    Ugo Finardi

  2. The Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, 315 Bloor Street West, Toronto, ON, M5S 0A7, Canada

    Ugo Finardi

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Finardi, U. Scientific collaboration between BRICS countries. Scientometrics 102, 1139–1166 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1490-5

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