[Network of international scientific collaboration on smoking: analysis of coauthorship through the Science Citation Index (1999-2003)]

The aim of this study was to analyze patterns of scientific collaboration and the visibility generated by coauthorship of articles on smoking among different countries on a world-wide basis through the Science Citation Index-Expanded (SCI-expanded) from 1999 to 2003.

We selected articles on smoking resulting from collaboration among different countries in the SCI-Expanded (1999-2003). The underlying networks of collaboration among countries were analyzed by comparing production (number of articles published), visibility (number of citations received) and centrality (node degree, intermediation and proximity).

A total of 3,484 articles were obtained, in which 5,008 institutions from 79 countries participated. The most productive country was the United Kingdom, with Germany and France in the second and third places. The United Kingdom also published the largest number of articles with inter-institutional collaboration (570 articles), with the USA and Germany in second and third places. The USA published the largest number of articles with international collaboration with the United Kingdom and France in the second and third places. All countries received a greater number of citations for articles resulting from international and inter-institutional collaboration than for those performed without collaboration. Networks of collaboration were completely connected through a single component and the annual increase in size of these inter-country networks was due to new countries joining the periphery of the network.

We found a positive correlation between international and inter-institutional collaboration and the number of citations received by articles on smoking research. The number of citations per year remained constant throughout the 5-year study period.