*Scientometrics Recent Advances*

### *Contrasting High Scientific Production with Low International Collaboration and Scientific… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85825*

On the other hand, it can be observed in the table that the robust quantitative data of the scientific production of the 35 countries conceal the dispersion of the most important qualitative components of this ranking: the scientific impact (Switzerland 22.9, Iran 7.1) and international collaboration (Switzerland, 62.2%, Turkey, 18.0%), with the average for the 35 countries of 15.3 and 40.8%, respectively, for the two indicators. It should be mentioned that when the data of the most recent year (2016) is taken, the international cooperation index of Switzerland increases from 62.2 to 72.1%, Turkey from 18.0 to 21.1%, and the average of the 35 countries from 40.8 to 49.9% (data not shown), thus confirming the recent tendency for the growth of international collaboration among countries. Analyzing the impact ranking (numbers in brackets in the column), a different figure is shown where the first ten countries in number of publications do not appear in a similar position in the impact ranking. Here, the first seven positions are occupied by Switzerland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden, Finland, and Belgium; none of them is present in the first quantitative positions, but all of them are showing a high proportion of international collaboration, thus indicating again the correlation—high international collaboration and higher citation impact—as shown in **Figure 3**.

**Table 3** clearly illustrates the influence of international cooperation on the index of scientific impact of the countries. Here we can see that the 21 countries with the highest international collaboration rates (above the average of **Table 2**, or 40.8%), varying between 41.3% (Spain) and 62.2% (Switzerland), have an average impact well above the mean of all countries. In this group, only the United States (25.7%) and Hong Kong (32.7%) have international cooperation level below average. The average impact index of the 21 countries in this group is 17.9 and the international collaboration is 49.2%. On the other hand, among the 14 other countries with the lowest impact rates, only Mexico has international collaboration above the average of the 35 countries. In this second group, the average impact index of the 14 countries is 11.4 and the international collaboration is 28.3%. The indices of the countries in the first group are, respectively, 57 and 74% higher than those in the second group, confirming again this positive correlation: high international collaboration, higher citation impact. Brazil is located in the group of countries that cite more than they are cited [10]. As with most countries with a low level of international cooperation, Brazil's low impact index (9.3), one of the lowest among the 35 most productive countries, is, in turn, followed by a low percentage (29.3%) of international scientific collaboration, also of the lowest in the whole world.

This work also included comparative studies with countries in Latin America, some of them linked to the MERCOSUL agreement and the component countries of the BRICS group. Both consort of countries present common commercial and social interests including the perspective of presenting some level of scientific collaboration. The comparison of Brazil with other Latin American countries is shown in **Table 4** which presents the data of the scientific production of the 12 most productive countries of Latin America in the period 2000–2016. This group includes members of the MERCOSUL: Argentina, Brazil, Chile (associated), Uruguay, and Venezuela (suspended in 2016). The evolution of the percentage of international collaboration in the period studied for the five most productive countries in the region is shown in **Figure 4**. Taken in consideration the number of WoS indexed publications shown in **Table 4**, it is seen that Brazil alone responds for more than 50% of publications of the 12 countries. It is also seen that half of these countries produced in the large period analyzed a small number of publications having all of them a very high percentage (64.4–86.3%) of international collaboration. The average percentage of cited articles in the 12 countries (71.1%) is relatively high compared to the world, and this high value is in agreement with that of the scientific impact (13.3). The variation in international collaboration ranged from 29.3 to 86.3%, with a high

*Scientometrics Recent Advances*

**102**

**Country** Denmark

Israel Austria

Greece Finland Hong Kong

Mexico Portugal

Norway Czech Republic

Singapore South Africa **Total and average**

**World (without double** 

**counting)**

**World (with double counting)**

**Table 2.**

*Scientific performance of the 35 most productive countries in 2000–2016.*

**31,110,404** *Source: ESI-InCites dataset updated 2017-04-15. Includes Web of Science content indexed through 2017-02-03.*

35

147,248 **28,671,597** **26,238,799**

**354,501,667**

**66.5**

**13.2**

**466,906,409**

**73.3**

**15.3**

1,800,982

71.4

12.2

33 34

162,098

2,818,900

77.7

17.4

163,456

1,944,604

72.3

11.9

29 30 31 32

175,131

3,224,102

77.7

18.4

175,260

2,317,498

71.7

13.2

175,970

1,886,483

69.9

10.7

180,864

3,077,238

79.0

17.0

24 25 26 27 28

194,118

3,861,474

79.4

19.9

194,490

2,618,069

72.6

13.5

240,026

4,136,021

71.9

17.2

241,825

4,458,141

75.8

18.4

248,517

5,266,614

76.4

**Rank**

**Articles**

**Times cited**

**% Doc. Cited**

**Citation impact**

21.2

**International collaborations**

138,171 104,323 137,232

78,315 99,452 59,202 74,953 86,924 96,192 77,412 83,015 70,708 **9,984,236**

**—**

Percent double counting: 16.1%

**% International collaborations**

55.6

43.1

57.2

40.3

51.2

32.7

42.6

49.6

54.9

47.4

51.2

48.0

**40.8**

**18.0**


### **Table 3.**

*Influence of the international collaboration on the scientific impact of countries: 2000–2016.*

average rate (61.5%). Brazil, despite its higher production, has the lowest impact rate (9.3) and international collaboration (29.3%) level. Contrasting with their rate of publications, the countries with the highest impact rates also present the highest levels of international collaboration, confirming the observation that there is an intrinsic relationship between these two indicators. Thus, in comparison with the most productive Latin American countries, Brazil is behind the other countries of the group reinforcing the significant observation: greater proportion of international collaboration, higher index of scientific impact [14].

However, according to recent studies [14, 21], it is doubtful whether the apparently positive data of high scientific impact by itself with low autonomous significant science production and very high dependence of international collaboration would be able to give good perspectives for the country's social and economic development.

**105**

**Figure 4.**

**Table 4.**

cooperation shown by Russia.

*Contrasting High Scientific Production with Low International Collaboration and Scientific…*

Brazil 1 539,049 4,997,160 69.5 9.3 158,083 29.3 Mexico 2 175,970 1,886,483 69.9 10.7 74,953 42.6 Argentina 3 133,349 1,611,771 73.4 12.1 56,759 42.6 Chile 4 87,419 1,107,194 71.9 12.7 49,465 56.6 Colombia 5 42,021 417,829 64.3 9.9 25,034 59.6 Venezuela 6 21,667 239,514 68.2 11.1 11,064 51.1 Cuba 7 14,331 145,440 71.1 10.2 9231 64.4 Peru 8 12,892 181,816 66.6 14.1 10,246 79.5 Uruguay 9 11,920 158,319 73.5 13.3 7997 67.1 Costa Rica 10 7562 129,555 75.4 17.1 5679 75.1 Ecuador 11 6972 85,375 68.6 12.3 5841 83.8 Panama 12 4941 132,191 80.6 26.8 4262 86.3 **Total and average 1,058,093 11,092,647 71.1 13.3 418,614 61.5** *Source: ESI-InCites dataset updated 2017-04-15. Includes Web of Science content indexed through 2017-02-03.*

**% Doc. cited**

**Citation impact**

**International collaborations**

**% International collaborations**

**cited**

In the case of the BRICS countries, South Africa is the country with the highest international collaboration rate (48.0%) and the country with the highest impact (12.2) (**Table 2**). **Figure 5** illustrates the recent evolution (2000–2016) of the international collaboration of the BRICS countries. With the exception of South Africa that exploits international collaboration at a level similar to the more developed countries, the other members of the group have much lower rates. Brazil, which has had an oscillating collaboration rate since the beginning of the period, has resumed a stronger growth from 2010 onwards, surpassing in 2015 the index of international

*International collaborations in scientific publications in Latin American countries in 2000–2016. Source: ESI-*

*InCites dataset updated 2017-04-15. Includes Web of Science content indexed through 2017-02-03.*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85825*

**Country Rank Articles Times** 

*Productivity ranking of Latin American countries in 2000–2016.*


*Contrasting High Scientific Production with Low International Collaboration and Scientific… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85825*

### **Table 4.**

*Scientometrics Recent Advances*

**N. Country Citation** 

**impact**

1 Switzerland 22.9 1 62.2 United

2 Denmark 21.2 2 55.6 Hong

**104**

20 South Africa

21 Czech Republic

**Table 3.**

average rate (61.5%). Brazil, despite its higher production, has the lowest impact rate (9.3) and international collaboration (29.3%) level. Contrasting with their rate of publications, the countries with the highest impact rates also present the highest levels of international collaboration, confirming the observation that there is an intrinsic relationship between these two indicators. Thus, in comparison with the most productive Latin American countries, Brazil is behind the other countries of the group reinforcing the significant observation: greater proportion of international

*Influence of the international collaboration on the scientific impact of countries: 2000–2016.*

**Average 17.9 — 49.2 Average 11.4 — 28.3** *Source: ESI-InCites dataset updated 2017-04-15. Includes Web of Science content indexed through 2017-02-03.*

**More than 41% of international collaboration Less than 41% of international collaboration**

 Netherlands 21.2 3 51.0 Japan 14.7 21 23.7 Scotland 20.8 4 43.6 Greece 13.5 22 40.3 Sweden 20.7 5 54.5 Taiwan 12.0 25 23.1 Finland 19.9 6 51.2 Korea 11.1 27 26.3 Belgium 19.2 7 58.8 Mexico 10.7 28 42.6 England 18.7 9 42.0 China 10.1 29 23.6 Israel 18.4 10 43.1 Poland 9.9 30 34.8 Norway 18.4 11 54.9 India 9.5 31 20.9 Germany 18.2 12 45.5 Brazil 9.3 32 29.3 France 18.2 13 48.4 Russia 7.9 33 33.1 Canada 18.0 14 43.6 Turkey 7.8 34 18.0 Singapore 17.4 15 51.2 Iran 7.1 35 21.4 Austria 17.2 16 57.2 — — — — Australia 16.3 18 43.1 — — — — Italy 16.1 19 41.0 — — — — Spain 15.0 20 41.3 — — — — Portugal 13.2 23 49.6 — — — —

**Country Citation** 

States

Kong

12.2 24 48.0 — — — —

11.9 26 47.4 — — — —

**impact**

**Rank % International collaborations**

19.0 8 25.7

17.0 17 32.7

**Rank % International collaborations**

However, according to recent studies [14, 21], it is doubtful whether the apparently positive data of high scientific impact by itself with low autonomous significant science production and very high dependence of international collaboration would be able to give good perspectives for the country's social and economic development.

collaboration, higher index of scientific impact [14].

*Productivity ranking of Latin American countries in 2000–2016.*

### **Figure 4.**

*International collaborations in scientific publications in Latin American countries in 2000–2016. Source: ESI-InCites dataset updated 2017-04-15. Includes Web of Science content indexed through 2017-02-03.*

In the case of the BRICS countries, South Africa is the country with the highest international collaboration rate (48.0%) and the country with the highest impact (12.2) (**Table 2**). **Figure 5** illustrates the recent evolution (2000–2016) of the international collaboration of the BRICS countries. With the exception of South Africa that exploits international collaboration at a level similar to the more developed countries, the other members of the group have much lower rates. Brazil, which has had an oscillating collaboration rate since the beginning of the period, has resumed a stronger growth from 2010 onwards, surpassing in 2015 the index of international cooperation shown by Russia.

### **Figure 5.**

*International collaborations in scientific publications in WoS of the BRICS countries in 2000–2016. Source: ESI-InCites dataset updated 2017-04-15. Includes Web of Science content indexed through 2017-02-03.*


### **Table 5.**

*Scientific collaborations of Latin American and BRICS countries with Brazil in 2000–2016.*

Based on the set of results shown for the Latin American and BRICS countries, we analyzed the scientific cooperation of these countries with Brazil. **Table 5** shows the total production data of the Latin American countries and the components of the BRICS group, the number of joint publications with Brazil, and the respective

**107**

*Contrasting High Scientific Production with Low International Collaboration and Scientific…*

percentage of collaboration of these countries with Brazil. The indices of collaboration in joint publications of Brazilian scientists with the Latin American or from BRICS countries are extremely low. Moreover, taking as an example the cooperation of the Latin American countries with Brazil shown in **Table 5**, it can be seen that the percentage of articles coming from this cooperation weighs much less on the total of Brazilian publications than on each of the partner countries, indicating that the rates of scientific cooperation among the countries of the region are very low when compared to the levels of international cooperation shown by these countries, as seen in **Table 5**. For Mexico's production, for example, this figure represents only 3.1% of its total scientific output and 14.5% for Costa Rica. For the estimation of this weight on Brazilian scientific production, the levels are even lower, varying from 0.1% (Panama and Costa Rica) to 1.7% with Argentina. A similar situation occurs when one compares the collaboration between scientists from BRICS countries and Brazil. That is, collaboration in the research projects of these countries, components of these two important trade blocs with Brazil, is practically nonexistent, suggesting that scientific and technological cooperation does not assume any significance in the context of these official partnerships. Nonetheless, such treaties emphasize that cooperation must include not only economic aspects but also scientific partnerships. Conversely, it has been observed for Latin American countries (data not shown) that intra-regional collaborations are much weaker than collaborations with developed countries. A similar situation was identified by Finardi [11] and Finardi

In this article, special emphasis was given on the influence of international cooperation on the qualitative performance of scientific production. In the analysis presented here, which identifies in the low international scientific collaboration the unfavorable position of Brazil as concerned to the citations and impact of its publications, whether in the world context or in its position among the countries of the two economic blocs in which it participates, the MERCOSUL and BRICS. It is important, however, to point out that other factors, not discussed in this article, can influence the impact of scientific publications such as the size of the scientific community in each area of knowledge, the language, the maturity level of the areas in each country (or even the global world maturity of the same areas), and the degree of priority given by government agents to the technical and scientific development of certain areas with a view to explore comparative advantages as well as focusing

As noted in an earlier study, the unbalanced and asymmetric international collaboration introduces profound distortions in the qualitative data of scientific production (citations, impact, world impact) of numerous countries and in the world, thus interfering in the expectations of scientific, technological, social, and economic development of the countries dependent on this type of international cooperation [14]. In this sense, in a recent article, Silva [22] deals with the relationship between productivity aspects and the quality of scientific production in the countries. The author makes severe criticism regarding comparisons of the scientific performance of Latin American countries. The author points out that it would not be appropriate to congratulate to some countries based on a simple analysis of these issues, since some countries have differentiated productivity in terms of their research and development priorities, with a high degree of self-financing, whereas the scientific production in other countries is highly dependent on the participation of international research groups and external financing. In our opinion, this

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85825*

and Buratti [12] for the BRICS case.

**4. Brazilian situation in the analyzed context**

the economic and social development of the countries.

*Contrasting High Scientific Production with Low International Collaboration and Scientific… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85825*

percentage of collaboration of these countries with Brazil. The indices of collaboration in joint publications of Brazilian scientists with the Latin American or from BRICS countries are extremely low. Moreover, taking as an example the cooperation of the Latin American countries with Brazil shown in **Table 5**, it can be seen that the percentage of articles coming from this cooperation weighs much less on the total of Brazilian publications than on each of the partner countries, indicating that the rates of scientific cooperation among the countries of the region are very low when compared to the levels of international cooperation shown by these countries, as seen in **Table 5**. For Mexico's production, for example, this figure represents only 3.1% of its total scientific output and 14.5% for Costa Rica. For the estimation of this weight on Brazilian scientific production, the levels are even lower, varying from 0.1% (Panama and Costa Rica) to 1.7% with Argentina. A similar situation occurs when one compares the collaboration between scientists from BRICS countries and Brazil. That is, collaboration in the research projects of these countries, components of these two important trade blocs with Brazil, is practically nonexistent, suggesting that scientific and technological cooperation does not assume any significance in the context of these official partnerships. Nonetheless, such treaties emphasize that cooperation must include not only economic aspects but also scientific partnerships. Conversely, it has been observed for Latin American countries (data not shown) that intra-regional collaborations are much weaker than collaborations with developed countries. A similar situation was identified by Finardi [11] and Finardi and Buratti [12] for the BRICS case.
