ABSTRACT

This chapter reviews established and novel approaches, sources, and measures for spatially oriented studies in scientific collaboration. It discusses the main methodological issues of the field. Spatial studies of scientific collaboration are based on generic scientometric ideas, sources, and methods. Simultaneously, they are intrinsically interdisciplinary because they add a geographical dimension to scientometrics. The essential information needed to measure scientific collaboration in space is the geolocation of collaborators. By and large, spatial studies of scientific collaboration predominately employ secondary data sources. Two proprietary databases dominate the special scientometrics landscape: Web of Science and Scopus. The spatial aspects of scholarly collaboration have also been investigated using patent data. Patent-based analyses reflect collaboration in applied science. The degree of collaboration is frequently used in scientometrics, mostly due to its simplicity and comprehensibility. An important limitation of the degree of collaboration is that it gives information about the level of scientific collaboration.