ABSTRACT
Scientific research is an increasingly international enterprise. Large-scale projects such as the CERN Large Hadron Collider require the participation of teams of physicists from all over the world. Much of biomedical research deals with diseases whose causes, spread and treatment know no national bounds. Major engineering and social-science projects are also likely to be international in scope. Scientists who work in specific disciplinary sub-specialties are often dispersed around the globe. Prompted and enabled by advances in technology and communication, cross-national collaborations have come to characterize much of science. For the purposes of this volume, international research collaborations are research projects that involve investigators whose primary employment affiliations are in different countries. They range from multi-national projects involving substantial infrastructure development, to mid-range collaborations among several sites or laboratories (including clinical trials), to simple projects involving two scientists from different countries. They may be longterm or limited in duration. These collaborations are subject to challenges common to all collaborative research (Who is in charge? Who will actually do the work? How shall credit be assigned for the products of the collaboration?). There are also complications arising from the cross-national nature of the work. Some of these relate to the team’s productivity (How will the investigators deal with the demands of different administrative and regulatory structures? How will international travel and communication affect the maintenance of the collaboration? How will normative differences be negotiated?). Others have to do with ensuring the integrity of the research (How can integrity be ensured when national standards and oversight mechanisms differ widely? How can collaborators verify that research processes and products meet appropriate standards for integrity? When rules and policies differ, whose rules apply?).
