WHAT IS RESEARCH COLLABORATION

Although there have been many previous studies of research collaborati on, comparatively little attention has been given to the concept of 'c ollaboration' or to the adequacy of attempting to measure it through c o-authorship. In this paper, we distinguish between collaboration at d ifferent levels and show that inter-institutional and international co llaboration need not necessarily involve inter-individual collaboratio n. 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.