UNU-MERIT Working Papers Series
Evolutionary convergence of the patterns of international research collaborations across scientific fields
Lili Wang & Mario Coccia #2015-011Frame and Carpenter (1979) analysed the pattern of international
research collaboration among scientific fields in 1970s. Starting from
this pioneering work, this paper investigates international
collaborations over 1997-2012 and compares the critical results with
earlier studies to detect the evolution of collaboration patterns in
different scientific fields. Empirical analysis supports two vital
findings, given by: a) a relatively stable structure of international
research collaborations over time across different scientific fields; b)
a convergent process of collaboration patterns between theoretical and
applied research fields. One important deter-minant of the latter result
might be due to the increasing interdisciplinary nature of research
fields that supports the convergence between basic and applied sciences.
Keywords: Scientific Fields, Research Collaboration, Science Evolution,
Co-authorship, Co-publishing, Interdisciplinary, Convergence.
JEL Classification: O31; O39; O10; N00; N31; N33
Download the working paper (PDF)
