Collaboration and cross-disciplinarity in autoimmune diseases

Collaboration and cross-disciplinarity are important features in autoimmune disease research. Taking co-authorship as an indicator for research collab oration, for selected European countries it was found that 91% to 99% of al l publications are based on collaboration. International collaboration affe cts about 27% of all publications. Small countries like Sweden and Finland pursue international collaboration more intensively than larger countries l ike Germany or the UK. Different collaboration strategies were found for na tionally co-authored papers, for instance, Germany seems to focus more on i ntra-departmental collaboration, while France and Italy have stronger inter -institutional links. About 54% of all publications are based on cross-disc iplinary collaboration, which was found to be even more important in intern ational collaboration.