ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the key challenges that may occur at the different stages of the collaboration process. It addresses number of questions: What is scientific collaboration? Why do scientists collaborate? How does collaboration work? The collaborative revolution indicates something deeper than a growth in the number of collaborative papers, international projects, co-patents, and joint events, or the growing use of shared facilities and equipment. The collaborative turn is manifested by the increasing size of research teams and scientific collaboration networks, as well as by the proliferation of collaboration crossing institutional, sectoral, national, and disciplinary borders. The impetus of the collaborative turn comes from the individual scholars who strive to build a network of collaborators, knowing that collaboration is key to pursuing their scientific careers. Strong modes of collaboration rest upon horizontal specialisation, with various strengths of cooperative bonds as well as a creativity component. There are two main forms of strong collaboration–creative and imitative.
