How latecomers catch up to leaders in high-energy physics as Big Science: transition from national system to international collaboration

Abstract

This study describes the increase of research productivity of latecomer countries (latecomers) in the high-energy physics (HEP) community by research strategies based on a national system and international collaboration (IC). The INSPIRE system, a bibliographic database for HEP researchers was used to obtain the number of publications and citations as indicators of research productivity. Our bibliometric estimates highlight two main results. First, latecomers’ national systems of public research institutes play a major role, and initially produced a large proportion of the research output, but this influence declined as IC increased. Second, IC greatly increased both the quantity and quality (number of citations) of research output in all latecomers. In most countries, the IC strategy has shown a strong correlation with the research output. The findings highlight the importance of a national research-support system and development of IC as strategies for new states that are entering the HEP field, and provide comparison of the two strategies. Further bibliometric research, such as examination of the strategic patterns of the leading countries will broaden the understanding of the national units of the HEP academic community.