Brazilian regions and international scientific collaboration

Abstract

There is little information on the differences between Brazilian regions regarding the quantity and quality of North-South and South-South scientific collaboration. Data from 2012 to 2021 was collected in InCites. Variance, principal components, discriminant and canonical analyses were carried out. Regional differences for publishing indicators are highly variable. Brazilian first, last or corresponding authors tend to publish in journals in quartiles 3 or 4 (poorer quality). These tend to be poorly cited, have a lower percentage of documents cited and have fewer publications in hybrid journals. Collaborations with industry tend to have higher citation impact. While the percentage of documents in open access journals positively affected the impact of North-South collaboration (NSC), it negatively affected South-South collaboration (SSC). Publishing in hybrid journals was important for increasing the impact factor in SSC. Factors such as article processing charges and open access should be considered when financing international collaboration. The inequalities between Brazilian regions for international collaborations tend to be numerical and not necessarily qualitative.