**Table 2.**

**103**

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

On the other hand, it can be observed in the table that the robust quantita

tive 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%, respec

tively, 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 pro

portion 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 coun

tries 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 interna

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 col

laboration 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 publica

tions 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 percent

age 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

tional scientific collaboration, also of the lowest in the whole world.









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

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