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A half-century of global collaboration in science and the 'Shrinking World'

Keisuke Okamura

TL;DR

The paper applies Open Bibliometrics to 50 years of international science collaboration using OpenAlex data, defining country presence via a binary nationality count and measuring proximity with the Jaccard distance to reveal evolving collaboration clusters across 15 natural science disciplines. It demonstrates a global shift from US-centric output toward a US–China dual leadership, followed by a notable 2019 divergence, and documents a general shrinking of international collaboration distances (ICD) over time, indicating more cross-border activity and interconnectedness. The study introduces methodological innovations, including a simple, well-defined distance metric and circular dendrogram visualizations, enabling dynamic, policy-relevant insights into the macro-structure of global research collaboration and its disciplinary variation. Overall, the findings highlight the growing openness and interdependence of the S&T system, while also raising questions about geopolitical frictions and their impact on cross-border knowledge production in a rapidly digitising scholarly landscape.

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic shift in the cross-border collaboration mode of researchers, with countries increasingly cooperating and competing with one another. It is crucial for leaders in academia and policy to understand the full extent of international research collaboration, their country's position within it, and its evolution over time. However, evidence for such world-scale dynamism is still scarce. This paper provides unique evidence of how international collaboration clusters have formed and evolved over the past 50 years across various scientific publications, using data from OpenAlex, a large-scale Open Bibliometrics platform launched in 2022. We first examine how the global presence of top-tier countries has changed in 15 natural science disciplines over time, as measured by publication volumes and international collaboration rates. Notably, we observe that the US and China have been rapidly moving closer together for decades but began moving apart after 2019. We then perform a hierarchical clustering to analyse and visualise the international collaboration clusters for each discipline and period. Finally, we provide quantitative evidence of a `Shrinking World' of research collaboration at a global scale over the past half-century. Our results provide valuable insights into the big picture of past, present and future international collaboration.

A half-century of global collaboration in science and the 'Shrinking World'

TL;DR

The paper applies Open Bibliometrics to 50 years of international science collaboration using OpenAlex data, defining country presence via a binary nationality count and measuring proximity with the Jaccard distance to reveal evolving collaboration clusters across 15 natural science disciplines. It demonstrates a global shift from US-centric output toward a US–China dual leadership, followed by a notable 2019 divergence, and documents a general shrinking of international collaboration distances (ICD) over time, indicating more cross-border activity and interconnectedness. The study introduces methodological innovations, including a simple, well-defined distance metric and circular dendrogram visualizations, enabling dynamic, policy-relevant insights into the macro-structure of global research collaboration and its disciplinary variation. Overall, the findings highlight the growing openness and interdependence of the S&T system, while also raising questions about geopolitical frictions and their impact on cross-border knowledge production in a rapidly digitising scholarly landscape.

Abstract

Recent decades have witnessed a dramatic shift in the cross-border collaboration mode of researchers, with countries increasingly cooperating and competing with one another. It is crucial for leaders in academia and policy to understand the full extent of international research collaboration, their country's position within it, and its evolution over time. However, evidence for such world-scale dynamism is still scarce. This paper provides unique evidence of how international collaboration clusters have formed and evolved over the past 50 years across various scientific publications, using data from OpenAlex, a large-scale Open Bibliometrics platform launched in 2022. We first examine how the global presence of top-tier countries has changed in 15 natural science disciplines over time, as measured by publication volumes and international collaboration rates. Notably, we observe that the US and China have been rapidly moving closer together for decades but began moving apart after 2019. We then perform a hierarchical clustering to analyse and visualise the international collaboration clusters for each discipline and period. Finally, we provide quantitative evidence of a `Shrinking World' of research collaboration at a global scale over the past half-century. Our results provide valuable insights into the big picture of past, present and future international collaboration.
Paper Structure (24 sections, 5 equations, 5 figures)

This paper contains 24 sections, 5 equations, 5 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction: Landscape of international collaboration revisited
  2. Methods: Through the lens of Open Bibliometrics
  3. The OpenAlex data
  4. Clustering of countries
  5. Results: Kaleidoscopes of international collaboration
  6. Number of works
  7. International collaboration rate
  8. Bilateral collaborative relationships
  9. International research collaboration clusters
  10. The 'Shrinking World'
  11. Summary and discussion: Across borders, disciplines and generations
  12. Acknowledgements.
  13. Author Contributions.
  14. Competing Interests.
  15. Funding Information.
  16. ...and 9 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Trends in the number of works (scientific publications) (left) and the international collaboration rate (right). The number of works is displayed in thousands.
  • Figure 2: Change in bilateral relationships over time. The number of works is displayed in thousands.
  • Figure 3: Trends in the affinity between the US and China (a) and the US and Japan (b).
  • Figure 4: Evolution of international research collaboration clusters.
  • Figure 5: 'Shrinking World': Change in the level of International Coupling Distance (ICD).