International Scientific Migration and Collaboration Patterns Following a Bibliometrics Line of Investigation

This study introduces a bibliometric approach to study international scientific migration, based on an analysis of the affiliation countries of authors publishing in peer reviewed scientificscholarly journals indexed in Scopus. A model is presented relating base notions in migration and collaboration studies to bibliometric constructs, and its potentialities and limitations are discussed. Synchronous and asynchronous analyses are presented for 10 rapidly growing countries and 7 scientifically established countries, comparing international migration with coauthorship relationships. Rough error rates of the proposed indicators are estimated. It is concluded that the bibliometric approach is useful provided that its outcomes are interpreted with care. Error rates for units of assessment with large indicator values are estimated to be fairly below 10 per cent. International migration and collaboration, though related, are different aspects of globalization. Common language plays a larger, and political tensions a less prominent role in the former compared to the latter.