What is research collaboration?

Although there have been many previous studies of research collaboration, comparatively little attention has been given to the concept of 'collaboration' or to the adequacy of attempting to measure it through co-authorship. In this paper, we distinguish between collaboration at different levels and show that inter-institutional and international collaboration need not necessarily involve inter-individual collaboration. We also show that co-authorship is no more than a partial indicator of collaboration Lastly, we argue for a more symmetrical approach in comparing the costs of collaboration with the undoubted benefits when considering policies towards research collaboration. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.