Foundation and Development of a Global Interdisciplinary

Research Network COLLNET

Under the Title„Collaboration in Science and in Technology“

Founding Members:

Hildrun Kretschmer (Co-ordinator)1,2 1The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences,

Amsterdam, The Netherlands2COLLNET, Hohen Neuendorf, Germany

Ramesh KundraNational Institute of Science, Technology and Development

Studies, New Delhi, India

Liming LiangInstitute of Science, Technology and Society, Henan Normal

University, Xinxiang, China

Abstract:

The paper describes the factors that led to the establishment of the international collaborative network, COLLNET. The focus of this group is to examine the phenomena of collaboration in science, its effect on productivity, innovation and quality, and the benefits and outcomes accruing to individuals, institutions and nations of collaborative work and co-authorship in science.

On account of the diversity of these issues it is possible to obtain promising results only against the backdrop of an interdisciplinary approach and from an intercultural viewpoint including both developing and developed countries.

Members (June 2003)64 members from 20 countries

Web site: www.collnet.de

Journal:Journal of Information Management and Scientometrics(Incorporating the COLLNET Journal)

COLLNET Meetings (2000-2006):- First COLLNET Meeting, September 2000, Berlin, Germany- Second COLLNET Meeting, February 2001, New Delhi, India- Third COLLNET Meeting, July 2001, Sydney, Australia- Fourth COLLNET Meeting, August 2003, Beijing, China- Fifth COLLNET Meeting, March 2004, Roorkee, India- Sixth COLLNET Meeting, July 2005, Stockholm, Sweden - Seventh COLLNET Meeting, May 2006, Nancy, France

Papers in Co-authorship between COLLNET Members:223 co-authored papers (lifetime, starting before official foundation of COLLNET)

Table of Content

1. Factors that Led to the Establishment of COLLNET1.1. Increasing Global Importance of Collaboration in

Research and Technology1.2. Increase in the Number of Scientific Studies of

this Topic1.3 Lack of Both Fundamental Knowledge and

Integration Among the Different Approaches tothe Topic

2. Foundation of COLLNET

3. COLLNET – Brief History (1970-1999)

4. Development of COLLNET (2000-2006)4.1 Introduction4.2 First COLLNET Meeting…4.3 Second COLLNET Meeting…4.4 Third COLLNET Meeting…4.5 Fourth COLLNET Meeting4.6 Fifth COLLNET Meeting4.7 Sixth COLLNET Meeting4.8 Announcement

5. Growth of Collaboration/Communication Structures in COLLNET Since 2000 (Social Network Analysis)5.1 Development of Informal and Formal Contacts

Between COLLNET Members 5.2 Development of the Co-authorship Network

1. Factors that Led to the Establishment of COLLNET

1.1 Increasing Global Importance of Collaboration in Research and Technology

The increase in scientific-technical collaboration in the course of history has been vividly documented through a number of analytical studies.

For example, it has been shown that between 1650 and 1800 not more than 2.2% of scientific papers were published in co-authorship.

By contrast, the second half of the 20th century is characterized the world over by teamwork and co-authorships in the natural sciences and in medicine, i.e. about 60-70% of the scientific papers were published during this period in co-authorship. (DeB. Beaver & Rosen 1978; 1979a & b).

1.2 Increase in the Number of Scientific Studies of this Topic

With the importance of collaboration in research and technology growing world-wide, it has become necessary to examine the processes involved in order to become aware of the implications for the future organization of research as well as those for science and technology policy. This has led to an increase in the number of scientific studies of this topic internationally. (Glanzel 2002, Borgman, C.L. & Furner, J. 2002).

The outstanding works of Donald deB. Beaver (1978), Derek John de Solla Price (1963) and others on the topic of collaboration in science have, over a number of years, encouraged a number of scientists working in the field of quantitative scientific research to concentrate their research in this field.

This has led both to an increase in the number of relevant publications concerning this topic in international magazines, and to an increase in the number of lectures in international conferences (Basu 2001, Braun et. al. 2001, Davis 2001, Havemann 2001, Wagner-Döbler 2001, Kundra & Tomov 2001).

1.3 Lack of Both Fundamental Knowledge and Integration Among the Different Approaches to the Topic

“Collaboration in Science”

By all accounts, this field of research is required to be a comprehensive and diversified area ranging from small-group research in social psychology/sociology to large network analyses conducted into international co-authorship or citation networks, including the concomitant observation of informal communication via interviews or interrogative surveys on bibliometrical analyses.

A common bibliometric method for measuring the cooperation is the analysis of co-authorship networks. A suitable webometric method has to be developed in the future.

There are various references to the positive effect of "multi-authored papers" in the co-authorship network: for example several studies show that international cooperation is linked with a higher `citation impact' (Glänzel 2002).

The investigation of these processes can be made by analyses at the micro level (individuals), at the meso level (institutions) or at the macro level (countries) (Glänzel 2002).

In the field of science studies one most frequently comes across investigations on international cooperation in science, followed by cooperation relationships between institutions.

The last few years have seen an ascendancy in how to treat these international issues. However, this trend has still failed to provide a concept on a fundamental and interrelated theory regarding the theme entitled ´Collaboration in science and in technology´. The different approaches taken so far have revealed the shortcomings of integration.

On account of the diversity of these issues it is possible to obtain promising results only against the backdrop of an interdisciplinary approach and from an intercultural viewpoint.

Both aspects are of basic importance in COLLNET.

In summary:The rise in collaboration in science and technology experienced world-wide at national and international level, has assumed such an overriding importance that there is now an urgent need perceptible to study such processes with a view to acquiring fundamental knowledge for organizing future research and its application to science and technology policies.

2. Foundation of COLLNET

Therefore in the year 2000 the time had come in the meantime to create a global interdisciplinary research network COLLNET on the topic "Collaboration in Science and in Technology" with

64 members from 20 countries of all continents.

The members intended to work in cooperation on both theoretical and applied aspects on the topic "Collaboration in

Science and in Technology".

Website: www.collnet.de

The focus of this group is to examine the phenomena of collaboration in science, its effect on productivity, innovation

and quality, and the benefits and outcomes accruing to individuals, institutions and nations of collaborative work

and co-authorship in science.

The establishment of COLLNET has been reported in a special issue of the international journal Scientometrics. In this report, the work of both the first and second meetings were outlined (Kretschmer, H., L. Liang and R. Kundra, 2001). The history and subsequent development of COLLNET is described in the following sections.

The areas of expertise represented by member scientists in COLLNET are varied: mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, medicine, history of science, social sciences and psychology. The team includes many senior scientists such as directors and/or deputy directors of large establishments, organizers and/or deputy organizers of world conferences in the field of scientometrics and informetrics as well as winners of the Derek John de Solla Price Medal.

Among these are board members of the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI), members of the German Society for Psychology and advisors to the international journal, Scientometrics. Current principal investigators, mainly from the field of quantitative scientific research (scientometrics and informetrics), engage in teamwork on the nature, characteristics, growth and policy relevance of collaboration and co-author networks. It is proposed to include in future more experts from other fields of scientific research and particularly from the social sciences, such as psychology and sociology.

COLLNET has been an important catalyst for research on collaboration and has provided opportunities for members to meet face to face at various international conferences such as at ISSI conferences (held every two years since 1987).

However, neither of these international conferences is focussed solely on issues relating to collaboration or collaborative networks, thus establishment of COLLNET in 2000 has opened an important forum in which ideas and work on these issues is exchanged. Closer personal contact between members inevitably leads to formal and informal agreements on collaborative projects on these crucial issues in research production.

3. COLLNET- Brief History (1970-1999)

The outstanding works of Donald deB Beaver, Derek John de Solla Price and others on the theme of collaboration in science have been inspiring many over several decades to devote themselves to research in this area. Attention was drawn to collaboration as an area of scientific interest at the 4th International Conference on Bibliometrics, Informetrics held in 1993 in Berlin.

It was at this meeting that the International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI) was established and this Society has contributed to the increase in international collaboration in this area. Out of the many collaborative endeavours since that time, only those that have played a significant role in the subsequent establishment of COLLNET are mentioned in this paper.

The Technology Foundation Utrecht (STW), The Netherlands, can be named as the primary source encouraging the establishment of COLLNET. The basic research carried out by H. Kretschmer on the theme “Collaboration in Science and in Technology” at the Centre for Science Studies (CWTS), Leiden University, The Netherlands, would not have been possible without support from the STW.

Two other institutions have been important in the development and success of COLLNET. The first is the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS), New Delhi, India, where some of the first international joint research projects were started with a few publications in Indo-German collaboration; the second, the Institute of Science, Technology and Society, Henan Normal University, Xinxiang, China, where past experience was utilised to prepare for collaborative endeavours in future.

Following these first efforts, subsequent Chinese-German and Indo-German projects on the theme of “Collaboration in Science” were supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and the Indian National Science Academy (INSA).

In September 1999, a 3-4 week visit to Berlin by Liang Liming (Henan Normal University) and Ramesh Kundra (NISTADS, India) was marked by intensive discussions with German colleagues (viz, F. Havemann and R. Wagner-Dobler, along with Theo Kretschmer). The following idea was engendered:

Considering the increasing global significance ofcross-national collaborative research, the cooperativeendeavours of the German-Chinese-Indian relationsneed to be expanded and that establishment of a globalinterdisciplinary research network or collaborationnetwork would provide the necessary leadership andscholarly focus.

A few months later, a paper by Mohsin Khan, a technology expert from NISTADS, India, who visited Berlin in November 1999, served to further re-affirm this idea. By agreement with the initial group interested in this idea, COLLNET was established to provide a means of furthering the focus and work on science and technology issues and in particular the role of collaboration and collaborative networks.

As already mentioned, the implementation of joint projects in large and small international groups and the organization of international COLLNET meetings are the most important tasks of COLLNET. An “Agreement of Principal Investigators” was jointly worked out by the COLLNET group (see the website: www.collnet.de):

4. Development of COLLNET (2000-2005)

4.1 Introduction

An important trigger to the creation of COLLNET was the first Berlin Workshop on Scientometrics and Informetrics/Collaboration in Science, Berlin, August 1998.

This workshop was organized by the Association of Science Studies (Gesellschaft fuer Wissenschaftsforschung e.V., Berlin), and supported by the Free University Berlin, and DFG. Two years later in September 2000, in conjunction with the Second Berlin Workshop on Scientometrics and Informetrics/Collaboration in Science and in Technology, the first COLLNET meeting was held at the Free University Berlin. From this time on, COLLNET meetings have been regularly held

4.2 First COLLNET Meeting and Second Berlin Workshop on Scientometrics and Informetrics/Collaboration in Science and in Technology

The First COLLNET Meeting was held in conjunction with the Second Berlin Workshop at the Free University Berlin from 1st to 3rd September 2000; 61 scientists from 17 countries participated. The Second Berlin Workshop was financially supported by the Free University, the German Research Society (DFG), the Eugene Garfield Foundation (USA), ALTUS Analytics AG (Berlin) and the city Hohen Neuendorf, Germany. Out of the 44 contributions, papers with a quantitative orientation were published in a special issue of the international journal, Scientometrics. The rest are published in an anthology of the Association for Science Studies (Gesellschaft fuer Wissenschaftsforschung e.V. Berlin).

The Keynote Address was presented by Donald deB Beaver, a well-known American researcher in the field of history of science and often referred to as “Father” of the specialised area of “Collaboration in Science”. Theoretical inputs and models of cooperation and communication presented at the workshop refer not only to bibliometric work but also include philosophical, sociological and psychological aspects that bridge the quantitative and qualitative research inputs. The talks included the following topics: - Changes in collaboration in the context of

transformation processes in East Europe.- Changes in collaborative inter-relationship between

East European countries and West Europe in thenineties

- National collaboration, e.g., within Estonia, Ukraine,China, India and Mexico.

- Collaboration within the specialised science areas, e.g.in psychology, nano-technology.

4.3 Second COLLNET Meeting and International Workshop on Emerging Trends in Science and in Technology Indicators: Aspects of Collaboration

56 participants from 8 countries with 57 contributions on the theme of collaboration in science and in technology took part in the international workshop, which was organized by the National Institute of Science, Technology and Development Studies (NISTADS) in February 2001 in New Delhi (India). This COLLNET meeting was held under the patronage of the organizer of the international workshop, Ramesh Kundra.The following were the salient features of the conference held in conjunction with COLLNET:

- Book Release: Proceedings of the First BerlinWorkshop on Scientometrics andInformetrics/Collaboration in Science, August 1998,Berlin.

- Signing of the cooperation agreements between theTechnische Fachhochschule Wildau, represented byProf. Rainer Voss, and the National Institute of Science,Technology and Development Studies, New Delhi,represented by Prof. Rajesh Kochhar.

- Discussion on further common COLLNETresponsibilities

4.4 Third COLLNET Meeting in conjunction with the 8th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics

Over 150 participants from more than 30 countries attended the 8th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics held in Sydney (Australia) in July 2001. Many of these participants were also COLLNET members. This third COLLNET Meeting was held under the patronage of the organizer of the 8th International ISSI Conference, Mari Davis.The four sessions covered the following themes:- Development of the research network COLLNET- Comparison between collaboration in science and

collaboration in technology- Presentation of common projects and publications- Organisation of future COLLNET meetings.

Participants from Australia, Belgium, China, England, India, Germany, Mexico, Spain and the Netherlands were provided with an overview of the development of the global interdisciplinary research network, COLLNET, during the establishment phase, 2000-2001. This was achieved by conducting a survey through a questionnaire circulated to all COLLNET members before the 2nd COLLNET meeting in New Delhi and again prior to the 3rd COLLNET meeting in Sydney.

Details about the results of this survey will be presented later.

4.5 Fourth COLLNET Meeting in conjunction with the 9th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics

The successful preparation of the 4th COLLNET Meeting which took place on Agust 29th, 2003, in Beijing in conjucntion with the 9th ISSI Conference (ISSI - International Society for Scientometrics and Informetrics) resulted in 13 oral presentations and 3 posters from several countries (Details in www.collnet.de). More than 40 scientists from all over the world participated in this meeting. Future strategies and measures of the effectiveness of collaborative engagements among members and productivity in the field of ‘collaboration in science and in technology’ were discussed. The Keynote Address was presented by the well-known American researcher in the field of history of science, Donald deB Beaver.

Two of the successful results of joint work in COLLNET have to be mentioned here (Details in www.collnet.de):- The official announcement of the International Workshop on Webometrics,

Informetrics and Scientometrics & Fifth COLLNET Meeting, 2-5 March 2005, Roorkee, India.       

- The official announcement of the Sixth COLLNET Meeting to be organised in conjunction with the 10th

ISSI Conference in July 2005 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Selected papers of the COLLNET Meeting were published in the peer reviewed Proceedings of the 9th International Conference of Scientometrics and Informetrics as well as in the international journal Scientometrics.

4.6 Fifth COLLNET Meeting in conjunction with the International Workshop on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics, 2-5 March 2005, Roorkee, India

The conference with about 60 participants was organized by the Central Library, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Roorkee, India. More than 50 papers from all over the world were submitted for the workshop. After the review process 36 contributions from 20 countries (Asia, Europe, America) were selected for presentation.The contributions were presented during 4 sessions (Webometrics, Informetrics & Scientometrics, Collaboration, Science and Technology).Selected papers are published in the peer reviewed Proceedings and some of them are invited for publication in Scientometrics as well as in the Journal of Information Management and Scientometrics (Incorporating the COLLNET Journal).

4.7. The 6th COLLNET Meetingwas held in conjunction with the “10th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics”, 24-28 July, 2005, Stockholm, Sweden(COLLNET – extra session, July 28, 2005) www.umu.se/inforsk/ISSI2005/

4. 8. Announcement

The International Workshop on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics & 7th COLLNET Meeting will be held in Nancy,

France, 10-12 May 2007

5. Growth of Collaboration/Communication Structures in COLLNET

Since 2000 (Social Network Analysis of COLLNET)

Two studies are presented:

- Development of informal and formal contacts betweenCOLLNET members

- Development of the co-authorship network

5.1 Development of Informal and Formal Contacts Between COLLNET Members

The questionnaire distributed to all of the COLLNET members asked for the following details:- Names of those COLLNET members with whom

informal (loose) contacts exist in some form (either ase-mail or exchange of reprints).

- Names of those with whom formal (intensive) contactsexist in the form of discussions on common projectswith definitive titles or in the form of co-authorship ofjoint papers.

The development of collaborative growth within the framework of COLLNET has been illustrated in Figures 2, 3 and 4.

Fig. 2 shows the number of informal (loose) contacts among the COLLNET-members at the time of the Second COLLNET Meeting in February 2001.

All the COLLNET members are compiled country-wise. 16 countries participated in COLLNET in the month of February. The line joining the front corner of Fig.2: (1/1) to the opposite rear corner (16/16) represents the main diagonal in which the contacts among COLLNET members of the same country have been plotted. As seen from Fig. 2, February 2001 witnessed the maximum number of informal (loose) contacts among COLLNET members within Germany (1/1) and between Germany and India (1/2). Informal contacts between other countries can also be observed.

Fig. 3 shows the number of the formal (intensive) contacts (joint projects or papers with definitive titles) as on the date of establishment of COLLNET, viz. 1st January 2000.

Fig. 4 shows the increase in these formal contacts over the one and a half years preceding the 3rd COLLNET Meeting.

Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4

It can be seen from the main diagonal in Fig. 3 that at the time when COLLNET was established, almost all the formal (intensive) contacts existed only among members belonging to the same country of origin.

However, Fig. 4 shows that during the subsequent period, the intensive contacts had expanded across the different countries. Fig. 4 resembles Fig. 2 in the graphical structural representation of informal (loose) contact.

This observation gives rise to the assumption that thanks to the development of a stronger COLLNET network, the loose contacts introduced through COLLNET have been progressively transformed into intensive contacts, thus fostering the development of a truly international research network.

In correspondence with this result the development of the COLLNET member’s co-authorship network will be shown in the next chapter.

5.2 Development of the Co-authorship Network

The first figure shows the co-authorship network (bibliometric data) from 1997, the second from 1999, the third from 2001 and the fourth from 2003

More details about the background of the growth of the COLLNET co-authorship network are presented in my next talk in the Webometric Session.

Collaboration until 1997

Collaboration until 1999

Collaboration until 2001

Collaboration until 2003.

Thank you!

International Program Committee Program Chair:

Hildrun Kretschmer (The Netherlands, Germany)Program Co-Chair:

Frank Havemann (Germany)Editorial Advisors:

ASIA/AUSTRALIA AMERICAR. Ambuja (India) Sylvan Katz (Canada)Subbiah Arunachalam (India) Sofia Liberman (Mexico)Aparna Basu (India) Liwen Vaughan (Canada)Sujit Bhattacharya (India)Mari Davis (Australia)B.M. Gupta (India)C.R. Karisiddappa (India) Ramesh Kundra (India)Liang Liming (China) Participants are coming from 20 countries.Farideh Osareh (Iran)I.K. Ravichandra Rao (India)Shivappa Sangam (India)

EUROPEIsidro Aguillo (Spain)Maria Bordons (Spain)Leo Egghe (Belgium)Loet Leydesdorff (The Netherlands)Irina Marshakova-Shaikevich (Poland, Russia)Martin Meyer (Belgium, Finland)Ronald Rousseau (Belgium)Andrea Scharnhorst (The Netherlands)Dimitar Tomov (Bulgaria)Roland Wagner-Döbler (Germany)