Abstract
The political and economic partnership known as BRIC (for Brazil, Russia, India and China) was formally established in 2008. Three years later, in a joint meeting in Cape Town, a new member, South Africa, was included in the group. In this meeting, delegates elaborated a list of priority areas for enhancing bi- or multilateral cooperation in the fields of science, technology and innovation. Considering the growing importance of BRICS in the global economy and other sectors, the present study investigates the performance of the group in the scientific arena before and after its formalization in 2008, looking closely at BRICS collaborative publications, in order to identify whether the priority areas established in the Cape Town declaration are being actually pursued. Data were collected during February and March 2017 from the Web of Science database, covering the period 2000–2015. To match scientific collaborations, specific searches were carried out by combining the names of two BRICS members and time periods. Various bibliometric techniques were used, including diachronic analysis, Bradford's law and journal co-citation analysis. Among the key findings highlighted here are a marked increase in BRICS participation during the period, widely varying levels of collaboration among members, and the presence of physics as a central field for most members. The chapter concludes with an in-depth discussion focusing on correlations between the fields with greater collaboration and the priority areas.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
J. O'Neill: Building better global economic BRICs: Global economics, http://www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/archive/archive-pdfs/build-better-brics.pdf (2001)
M.R.S. Lima: Brasil e polos emergentes do poder mundial: Rússia, Índia, China e África do Sul. In: O Brasil e os demais BRICs: comércio e política, ed. by R. Baumann (IPEA CEPAL, Brasília 2010), http://repositorio.cepal.org/bitstream/handle/11362/1404/S3821B823D2010_pt.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
F. Mello: BRICS e Cooperação para o Desenvolvimento Internacional (IESC, Brasília 2015), http://www.inesc.org.br/biblioteca/publicacoes/livros/2015/brics-e-cooperacao-para-o-desenvolvimento-internacional/view
J.E. Cassiolato, H.M.M. Lastres: Science, technology and innovation policies in the BRICS countries: An introduction. In: BRICS and Development Alternatives: Innovation Systems and Policies, ed. by J.E. Cassiolato, V. Vitorino (Anthem, London 2009) pp. 1–34
BRICS Ministry of External Relations: Third summit: Sanya declaration and action plan, http://brics.itamaraty.gov.br/category-english/21-documents/67-third-summit (2011)
BRICS Ministry of External Relations: First BRICS science, technology and innovation ministerial meeting: Cape Town declaration, http://brics.itamaraty.gov.br/ptbr/category-english/21-documents/187-first-brics-science-technology-and-innovation-ministerial-meeting-cape-town-declaration (2014)
New York Academy of Sciences: Frontiers of Science, http://www.nyas.org/programs/frontiers-of-science/
Science News Staff: A look ahead at 2016: What research trends will be hot—and what will not?, http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/12/look-ahead-2016-what-research-trends-will-be-hot-and-what-will-not (2015)
OECD: Science, Technology and Innovation Outlook (OECD, Paris 2016), https://doi.org/10.1787/sti_in_outlook-2016-en
M.A. Bagchi: Comparative analysis of the factors for fostering innovation in BRICS countries from 1995 to 2009, J. Manag. 41(1), 1–20 (2011)
A. Calderón-Martïnez, E. Ruiz-Conde: Leading emerging markets: Capturing and diffusing scientific knowledge through research-oriented repositories, Scientometrics 104(3), 907–930 (2015)
E. Mauleon, D. De Filippo: Are the BRIC and MITS countries improving their presence in the international science? In: Proc. 14th Int. Soc. Scientometr. Informetr. Conf, Vol. 2 (Facultas, Vienna 2013) pp. 1868–1870
Y. Wang, J. Li-Ying: How do the BRIC countries play their roles in the global innovation arena? A study based on USPTO patents during 1990–2009, Scientometrics 98(2), 1065–1083 (2014)
C.Y. Wong, L. Wang: Trajectories of science and technology and their co-evolution in BRICS: Insights from publication and patent analysis, J. Informetrics 9(1), 90–101 (2015)
Y. Yi, W. Qi, D. Wu: Are CIVETS the next BRICs? A comparative analysis from scientometrics perspective, Scientometrics 94(2), 615–628 (2013)
C.S. Wagner, S.K. Wong: Unseen science? Representation of BRICs in Global Science, Scientometrics 90(3), 1001–1013 (2012)
L. Bornmann, C. Wagner, L. Leydesdorff: BRICS countries and scientific excellence: A bibliometric analysis of most frequently cited papers, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. (JASIST) 66(7), 1507–1513 (2015)
M.R. Guevara, M. Mendoza: Publishing patterns in BRIC countries: A network analysis, Publications 4(20), 1–14 (2016), http://www.mdpi.com/2304-6775/4/3/20
U. Finardi: Scientific collaboration between BRICS countries, Scientometrics 102(8), 1139–1166 (2015)
M. Singh, N. Hasan: Trend in research output and collaboration pattern among BRICS countries: A scientometric study. In: 4th Int. Symp. Emerg. Trends Technol. Libr. Inf. Serv.+ (2015), http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=7048201
U. Finardi, A. Buratti: Scientific collaboration framework of BRICS countries: An analysis of international coauthorship, Scientometrics 109(1), 433–446 (2016)
J. Bai, W. Li, W.M. Huang, Y. Guo: Bibliometric study of research and development for neglected diseases in the BRICS, Infect. Dis. Poverty 5(1), 1–10 (2016)
R.N. Machado, J. Leta: Trends of intellectual and cognitive structures of stem cell research: A study of Brazilian scientific. In: Proc. 14th Int. Soc. Scientometr. Informetr. Conf., Vol. 2 (Facultas, Vienna 2013) pp. 1759–1771
R.N. Machado, B. Vargas-Quesada, J. Leta: Intellectual structure in stem cell research: Exploring Brazilian scientific articles from 2001 to 2010, Scientometrics 106(2), 525–537 (2015)
R.N. Machado, J. Leta: Crescimento, autores e temáticas da produção na área de células-tronco: o caso dos BRICS. In: XVII Encontro Naci. Pesqui. Ciênc. Informaç (PPGCI/UFBA, Salvador 2016)
L.Y. Yang, T. Yue, J.L. Ding, T. Han: A comparison of disciplinary structure in science between the G7 and the BRIC countries by bibliometric methods, Scientometrics 93(2), 497–516 (2012)
B.C. Brookes: Bradford's law and the bibliography of science, Nature 224, 953–956 (1969)
K.W. McCain: Mapping economics through the journal literature: An experiment in journal cocitation analysis, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci. 42(4), 290–296 (1991)
M. Bastian, S. Heymann, M. Jacomy, M. Gephi: An open source software for exploring and manipulating networks. In: Int. AAAI Conf. Weblogs Soc. Media (2009), https://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/09/paper/view/154/1009
V. Blondel, J. Guillaume, R. Lambiotte, E. Lefebvre: Fast unfolding of communities in large networks, J. Stat. Mech. 2, 100–108 (2008)
J. Testa: A view from Web of Science: Journals, articles impact, Inf. Serv. Uses 36(1/2), 99–104 (2016)
J. Leta: Brazilian growth in the mainstream science: The role of human resources and national journals, J. Scientometr. Res. 1(1), 44–52 (2012)
Y. Wang, R. Hu, M. Liu: The geotemporal demographics of academic journals from 1950 to 2013 according to Ulrich’s database, J. Informetr. 11(3), 655–671 (2017)
S. Yan, R. Rousseau, S. Huang: Contributions of Chinese authors in PLOS ONE, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol. 67(3), 543–549 (2016)
D. Nicholas, P. Huntington, I. Rowlands: Open access journal publishing: The views of some of the world's senior authors, J. Doc. 61(4), 497–519 (2011)
S. Lawrence: Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact, Nature 411(521), 521–522 (2011)
B.C. Björk, D. Solomon: Open access versus subscription journals: A comparison of scientific impact, BMC Medicine (2012), https://doi.org/10.1186/1741-7015-10-73
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Global disease detection program: South Africa, https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/healthprotection/gdd/south-africa.html (2017)
H. Bouabid, A. Paul-Hus, V. Larivierè: Scientific collaboration and high-technology exchanges among BRICS and G-7 countries, Scientometrics 106(3), 873–899 (2016)
N. Kumar, N. Asheulova: Comparative analysis of scientific output of BRIC countries, Ann. Libr. Inf. Stud. 58(Sept.), 228–236 (2011)
D.W. Aksnes, T.N. van Leeuwen, G. Sivertsen: The effect of booming countries on changes in the relative specialization index (RSI) on country level, Scientometrics 101(2), 1391–1401 (2014)
P. Mongeon, A. Paul-Hus: The journal coverage of web of science and scopus: A comparative analysis, Scientometrics 106(1), 213–228 (2016)
OECD: How is international student mobility shaping up?, Educ. Indic. Focus 14, 1–4 (2013), http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/EDIF%202013--N%C2%B014%20(eng)-Final.pdf
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Leta, J., das Neves Machado, R., Lovón Canchumani, R.M. (2019). Scientific Collaboration Among BRICS: Trends and Priority Areas. In: Glänzel, W., Moed, H.F., Schmoch, U., Thelwall, M. (eds) Springer Handbook of Science and Technology Indicators. Springer Handbooks. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02511-3_19
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02511-3_19
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02510-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02511-3
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceEconomics and Finance (R0)