How much is a collaboration worth? A calibrated bibliometric model

Abstract

Interest in collaboration is increasing in policy circles. There are numerous international and national programs to encourage collaboration, for example, between university and industry researchers. However, little is know about the way in which collaboration changes the impact of a research publication. This paper explores how the impact (average citations per paper) varies with different types of collaboration. A calibrated bibliometric model is derived that demonstrates that collaborating with an author from the home institution or another domestic institution increases the average impact by approximately 0.75 citations while collaborating with an author from a foreign institution increases the impact by about 1.6 citations.