International co-authorship in Kazakhstan’s authors publications in medicine

Abstract

Abstract Background Starting in 2013, the rating of medical universities Republic of Kazakhstan(RK) on scientific and innovational activities was introduced. Various characteristics that can influence on scientific performance were investigated. We assessed the impact of national and international collaboration on the scientific performance of medical universities of RK. Methods Publications metrics such as impact factor (IF) of journals, quartile of the journal and the number of citations of RK authors in the field of medicine published in 2013-2018 in Web of Science database were analyzed, according to the level of co-authorship. Results Authors affiliated with one organization (group 1) average impact factor of journals was (0.391(CI = ±0.04), in national co-authorship (group 2) (0.648(CI = ±0,04), in international co-authorship (group 3) 3.703 (CI = ±0.08) There is no statistically significant difference between IF of journals in which authors are from one organization or in national co-authorship, and there is a statistically significant difference between 3 (international co-authorship) and the 1 and 2 groups. Further, the journals were distributed depending on the quartile of the journal (Q1,Q2,Q3,Q4) and an analysis was carried out depending on citations and the level of co-authorship (one organization, national, international). The highest percentage of co-authorship was found in the journals of the first quartile (92.8%), in the journals Q2-80.1%,Q3-74%,Q4-28.6%). 95.9% of citations come from publications in international co-authorship. Conclusions International cooperation expands the possibilities of obtaining an interest in the study. Not the poor quality of research of local authors, but the difficulty of publishing the results of research in top journals for authors from developing countries without the support of international co-authors, also due to the 'Matthew effect' for some countries. It is recommended that medical researchers should expand international cooperation Key messages When presenting the results of their research, researchers should consider the impact and possibilities of international co-authorship to expand the audience. The difficulty of publishing research results in leading journals for authors from developing countries without the support of international co-authors.