Abstract
One of the major characteristics of research is the role and scope of international collaboration. Patterns of such collaboration are often complex and determined not only by pure academic rationale, but also by political, economic, geographic and cultural factors. The post-Soviet region has several features, which make it a unique unit for analysis of scientific collaboration. Based on bibliometric data for the period 1993–2018 with a 5-year lag, we analyze how international collaboration patterns of post-Soviet countries changed after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Our results show that in the observed period post-Soviet countries significantly changed their patterns of international collaboration, and these changes are country-specific. The analyzed countries moved away from each other, choosing their own international collaboration strategy. We observe a dramatic decrease in scientific collaboration between post-Soviet countries and a significant growth of collaboration with Western countries. With that, the role of post-Soviet countries in international collaboration declined rapidly for many countries.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Allik, J. (2003). The quality of science in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania after the first decade of independence. Trames, 7(1), 40–52.
Ball, D. Y., & Gerber, T. P. (2005). Russian Scientists and Rogue States: Does Western assistance reduce the proliferation threat? International Security, 29(4), 50–77. https://doi.org/10.1162/isec.2005.29.4.50
Chankseliani, M., Lovakov, A., & Pislyakov, V. (2021). A big picture: Bibliometric study of academic publications from post-Soviet countries. Scientometrics, 126(10), 8701–8730. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04124-5
Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., Sugimoto, C. R., & Larivière, V. (2019). Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations. PLoS ONE, 14(6), e0218309. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218309
Egghe, L., Rousseau, R., & Van Hooydonk, G. (2000). Methods for accrediting publications to authors or countries: Consequences for evaluation studies. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 51(2), 145–157. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-4571(2000)51:2%3c145::aid-asi6%3e3.0.co;2-9
Ganguli, I. (2014). Scientific brain drain and human capital formation after the end of the Soviet Union. International Migration, 52(5), 95–110. https://doi.org/10.1111/imig.12165
Garfield, E. (1990). The Russians are coming! Part 1. Red-Hot 100 Soviet Scientists, 1973–1988. Current Contents, 24, 202–215.
Gauffriau, M. (2021). Counting methods introduced into the bibliometric research literature 1970–2018: A review. Quantitative Science Studies, 2(3), 932–975. https://doi.org/10.1162/qss_a_00141
Gingras, Y. (2020). The Transformation of the Scientific Paper: From Knowledge to Accounting Unit. In M. Biagioli et A. Lippman (dir.), Gaming the Metrics: Misconduct and Manipulation in Academic Research (p. 43–55). MIT Press. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/11087.003.0004
Grácio, M. C. C., de Oliveira, E. F. T., Chinchilla-Rodríguez, Z., & Moed, H. F. (2020). Does corresponding authorship influence scientific impact in collaboration: Brazilian institutions as a case of study. Scientometrics, 125, 1349–1369. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03655-7
Graham, L. B. (1993). Science in Russia and the Soviet Union: A short history. Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/99.5.1726
Hallonsten, O., & Cramer, K. C. (2020). Big science and research infrastructures in Europe: conclusions and outlook. In Big Science and Research Infrastructures in Europe. Edward Elgar Publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839100017.00018
He, Z. L., Geng, X. S., & Campbell-Hunt, C. (2009). Research collaboration and research output: A longitudinal study of 65 biomedical scientists in a New Zealand university. Research Policy, 38(2), 306–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2008.11.011
Hollings, C. D. (2016). Scientific communication across the Iron Curtain. Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25346-6
Hottenrott, H., Rose, M. E., & Lawson, C. (2021). The rise of multiple institutional affiliations in academia. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology, 72(8), 1039–1058. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.24472
Karaulova, M., Gök, A., Shackleton, O., & Shapira, P. (2016). Science system path-dependencies and their influences: Nanotechnology research in Russia. Scientometrics, 107(2), 645–670. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-1916-3
Klochikhin, E. A. (2012). Russia’s innovation policy: Stubborn path-dependencies and new approaches. Research Policy, 41(9), 1620–1630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2012.03.023
Kozak, M., Bornmann, L., & Leydesdorff, L. (2015). How have the Eastern European countries of the former Warsaw Pact developed since 1990? A Bibliometric Study. Scientometrics, 102(2), 1101–1117. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1439-8
Krementsov, N. (1996). Stalinist science. Princeton University Press.
Kumar, N., & Asheulova, N. (2011). Comparative analysis of scientific output of BRIC countries. Annals of Library and Information Studies, 58, 228–236.
Kuraev, A. (2014). Internationalization of higher education in Russia: collapse or perpetuation of the Soviet system? A historical and conceptual study. Boston College. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3799
Leahey, E. (2016). From sole investigator to team scientist: Trends in the practice and study of research collaboration. Annual Review of Sociology, 42, 81–100. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-soc-081715-074219
Leydesdorff, L., & Wagner, C. S. (2008). International collaboration in science and the formation of a core group. Journal of Informetrics, 2(4), 317–325. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2008.07.003
Luukkonen, T., Tijssen, R., Persson, O., & Sivertsen, G. (1993). The measurement of international scientific collaboration. Scientometrics, 28(1), 15–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02016282
Marginson, S., & Rhoades, G. (2002). Beyond national states, markets, and systems of higher education: A glonacal agency heuristic. Higher Education, 43(3), 281–309.
Matveeva, N., & Ferligoj, A. (2020). Scientific collaboration in Russian universities before and after the excellence initiative Project 5–100. Scientometrics, 124(3), 2383–2407. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-020-03602-6
Mindeli, A.E. (Ed.). (1991). Nauka v SSSR v Tsifrakh: 1990. Moskva.
Miranda, R., & Garcia-Carpintero, E. (2019). Comparison of the share of documents and citations from different quartile journals in 25 research areas. Scientometrics, 121(1), 479–501. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-019-03210-z
Moed, H. F. (2006). Citation analysis in research evaluation (Vol. 9). Springer Science & Business Media. https://doi.org/10.1002/ange.200485388
Moed, H. F., Markusova, V., & Akoev, M. (2018). Trends in Russian research output indexed in Scopus and Web of Science. Scientometrics, 116, 1153–1180. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2769-8
Nesvetailov, G. (1995). Center-peripheral relations and the transformation of post-Soviet science. Knowledge and Policy, 7(2), 53–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02825968
Ni, P., & An, X. (2018). Relationship between international collaboration papers and their citations from an economic perspective. Scientometrics, 116(2), 863–877. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-018-2784-9
Potter, R. W., Szomszor, M., & Adams, J. (2020). Interpreting CNCIs on a country-scale: The effect of domestic and international collaboration type. Journal of Informetrics, 14(4), 101075. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2020.101075
Rabkin, Y. M., & Mirskaya, E. Z. (1993). Science and scientists in the post-Soviet disunion. Social Science Information, 32(4), 553–579. https://doi.org/10.1177/053901893032004002
Radosevic, S., & Yoruk, E. (2014). Are there global shifts in the world science base? Analysing the catching up and falling behind of world regions. Scientometrics, 101(3), 1897–1924. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-014-1344-1
Schneider, C. M. (2013). Research and development management: from the Soviet Union to Russia. Springer Science & Business Media.
Schott, T. (1992). Soviet science in the scientific world system: Was it autarchic, self-reliant, distinctive, isolated, peripheral, central? Knowledge, 13(4), 410–439. https://doi.org/10.1177/107554709201300403
Waltman, L. (2016). A review of the literature on citation impact indicators. Journal of Informetrics, 10(2), 365–391. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2016.02.007
Waltman, L., & van Eck, N. J. (2015). Field-normalized citation impact indicators and the choice of an appropriate counting method. Journal of Informetrics, 9(4), 872–894. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2015.08.001
Yegorov, I. (2009). Post-Soviet science: Difficulties in the transformation of the R&D systems in Russia and Ukraine. Research Policy, 38(4), 600–609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2009.01.010
Funding
This work was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (grant 20-18-00140).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Matveeva, N., Sterligov, I. & Lovakov, A. International scientific collaboration of post-Soviet countries: a bibliometric analysis. Scientometrics 127, 1583–1607 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04274-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04274-0
Keywords
- International collaboration
- Bibliometric analysis
- Collaboration patterns
- Fractional counting
- Post-Soviet countries