Abstract

LUNA-MORALES, María Elena. International scientific collaboration and recognition of Mexican science from 1980 to 2004. Investig. bibl [online]. 2012, vol.26, n.57, pp.103-129. ISSN 2448-8321.

This paper presents an analysis of publications recorded in the Science Citation Index (SCI) databases from 1980 to 2004, and in the Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) databases from 1997 to 2004. In order to establish the level of international recognition of the Mexican science, we define in our study the basic aspects of the scientific collaboration with other institutions, countries and disciplines. This work is supported by the bibliometric method and co-authorship network analysis using Pajek software. In these results, Mexico has performed an international collaboration from the early years of the study, although with less intensity during the 80's and the first half of the 90's. I.e., during this period, the publishing schema has been dominated by the practice of research in single authorship, as evidenced by the fact that 40% of the total production was released without collaboration. In the second half of the 90's Mexico shows a stronger international collaboration through 4,000 different institutions from 143 different countries. The network analysis proves that Mexican collaboration with USA has the largest share, followed by those with Canada and England, in terms of the centrality measures of academic degree, proximity and mediators. Finally, according to the number of joint publications recorded in our study, the Mexican international collaboration is highlighted with United States, Canada, England, as well as with Italy, Germany, Argentina, Cuba and Brazil.

Keywords : Science in Mexico; Scientific Collaboration; Recognition of Mexican Science; International visibility of Mexican science.