Follow the leader: On the relationship between leadership and scholarly impact in international collaborations

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218309
• Publication Date: 2019-06-20T20:09:46Z
• Authors: Zaida Chinchilla-...; Cassidy R. Sugimoto; Vincent Larivière
• Keywords: Citation impact; Science Policy

National contributions to science are influenced by a number of factors, including economic capacity, national scientific priorities, policy, and institutional settings cultures. Nations do not have equal opportunities access the global market, therefore, often seek out international partners with complementary resources expertise. This study aims at investigating collaboration strategies, focus on research leadership-measured through corresponding authorship-and its relationship impact. Results show that countries higher R&D investments more scientifically independent, confirm is positively related citation However, leadership in inversely countries' share there very little between impact leadership. For instance, most countries-and particularly those fewer resources-have when they leading. suggests that, despite increasing participation science, collaborations asymmetrical, system remains structured around few dominate nations.