External Research Collaboration in Two Small Science Systems

This paper compares external research collaboration in small science systems. The design involves studying research collaboration in an independent country (Iceland) and a region of a large country (Newfoundland, Canada). The objective of the paper is firstly to gain a deeper understanding of external research collaboration in small science systems by using both quantitative and qualitative methods and secondly to examine if it is justifiable to compare small regions and small independent countries in terms of their scientific activities. The two science systems are compared with respect to their publication patterns in order to explore how comparable they are in their scientific profiles. External collaboration rates for both science systems are then measured and compared, and it is shown that research collaboration plays an important part in the two science systems. The role of research collaboration is examined further with a combination of bibliometric analysis and interview data. It was found that scientists in small science systems do not collaborate only because they lack economic resources, but an important reason for their collaboration was the availability of research material which was in demand by scientists in the wider scientific world.