THE MEASUREMENT OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC COLLABORATION

A growing science policy interest in international scientific collabor ation has brought about a multitude of studies which attempt to measur e the extent of international scientific collaboration between countri es and to explore intercountry collaborative networks. This paper atte mpts to clarify the methodology that is being used or can be used for this purpose and discusses the adequacy of the methods. The paper conc ludes that, in an analysis of collaborative links, it is essential to use both absolute and relative measures. The latter normalize differen ces in country size. Each yields a different type of information. Abso lute measures yield an answer to questions such as which countries are central in the international network of science, whether collaborativ e links reveal a centre - periphery relationship, and which countries are the most important collaborative partners of another country. Rela tive measures provide answers to questions of the intensity of collabo rative links.