Does international collaboration increase high quality publication?

Abstract

Especially European Union framework programmes require researchers to participate in international collaboration. In this work, we analyze the relationship between international collaboration and quantity of high quality publications, number of researchers and research funding separately in sciences and social sciences. The data from Thomson Reuters Web of Knowledge and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Institute for Statistics and panel data analysis is employed. We have found that number of researchers and number of publications are positively correlated, however research funding is much more important than number of researchers on the number of high quality publications. Collaborations with countries, which have a high number of high quality publications increase the number of high quality publications whereas collaborations with countries with lower number of high quality publications have a positive effect on the number of publications, and a negative effect on the number of high quality publications.