ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses international research collaboration (IRC) and international research orientation at the micro-level of individual academics from the university sector. It examines the correlation between IRC and individual research productivity. The chapter shows a powerful role of internationalization of research for both individual research productivity and the competitiveness, in terms of both volume and quality, of national research outputs. It focuses on IRC and assumes the researcher-based view rather than the research-based view. In traditional accounts of social stratification in science, internationalists tend to compete for international recognition—and locals tend to do research and publish for national research markets. The aggregated national academic research production can be compared internationally, either through the international publication reports or through the international citation reports. Enhanced IRC, especially that leading to international publishing in top-tier journals, contributes to the emergence of new stratification in the academic professions in Europe along the divide between internationalists and locals.
