A bibliometric perspective on the roles of government funding and international collaboration in scientific research

Government funding and international collaboration play significant roles in science development. Both may play roles in publication citation impact. The current study focused on funded international collaboration in six countries (i.e., China, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, The Netherlands and US). Different countries vary in arrangement of government funding sources in support of competitive research projects. China and Brazil are centralized to a unique agency (i.e., NSFC and CNPq), whereas the rest four countries are relatively decentralized. The six focal agencies of the current study (i.e., NSFC, NSF, DFG, NWO, NRF and CNPq) are more efficient than non-focal agencies in general in raising citation impact, with NSF of US performs best. Not all countries get benefit from international collaboration in terms of raising citation impact of publications: developing countries (i.e., China and Brazil in current study) benefit more than developed countries. Collaborating with developed countries especially the US can he a first option for choosing foreign partners. With regard to interaction between funding and international collaboration, DFG performs best in raising citation impact of international collaboration.