Analysis of research collaboration between universities and private companies in Spain based on joint scientific publications

Introduction. The article presents the results of a study on scientific collaboration between Spanish universities and private enterprise, measured in terms of the co-authorship of papers published in international journals. Method. Bibliometric analysis of papers published in journals listed in Scopus in 2003-2011. Indicators were calculated for output, collaboration, standardised impact and publication in highly reputed journals. Analysis. A number of dimensions were explored: (1) publication patterns among domestic companies; (2) subject matter distribution and impact of the papers published; (3) university-company partnering based on papers co-authored by university and private sector researchers; and (4) regional differences. Results. The three fields where production was most intense were biochemistry, genetics and molecular biology, engineering and medicine. Research in collaboration with companies had a lower normalised impact than research conducted by universities alone. The highest volumes of private sector collaboration with Spanish universities were recorded for pharmaceutical companies. Conclusions. Companies' output was observed to decline across the period studied and their academic articles appeared to be less visible than the papers published by other institutions.