Scientists' collaboration in the social sciences field: Investigating the determinants of scholarly collaboration in the Canadian context 2001–2008

Abstract

In the era of knowledge-based economies, knowledge production and transfer have emerged as a crucial component of innovation and human capital development. Science activities are globalizing and research partnerships will become increasingly imperative. Hence a considerable trend in research collaboration has been noted in the literature. Over the last few years, collaboration among scientists has been on the rise [1] and the different ways in which this collaboration takes place have been the subject of many conceptual [2] and empirical studies [3]. Furthermore, the analysis of the relationship between research inputs (grants, infrastructure spending, training of researchers, etc.) and research outputs (collaboration, productivity, citation, impact, etc.) has also been the subject of several explanatory studies, mostly done in OECD countries, whether in France [4], the United States [5], Italy [6], New Zealand [7], the United Kingdom [8], Australia [14], or the European Union [9].