Scientific impact of Chilean-based animal behavioralists is positively associated with co-authorships from developed countries, high impact factor journals, but not with gender

Abstract

Background Previous bibliometric studies in scientific researchers from developed countries generally support that sharing efforts during research enhances productivity and impact and suggest these effects may be important for researchers from less developed countries exhibiting more exiguous science budgets. We examined whether researchers in the field of animal behavior in an economically less developed country compensate for this burden by collaborating with researchers from developed countries, and whether this effect is gender specific.

Methods We quantified collaborations of 30 Chilean-based focal animal behavioralists with peers from developed countries based on co-authorships within 664 animal behavior papers. We examined whether the mean number, or mean proportion of such co-authorships was positively associated with productivity (number of research papers) and impact (h-index, citations per research paper) when gender, author role (i.e., first or corresponding author), and other covariates were considered. We complemented these analyses with a survey to focal researchers to estimate the perceived relevance of collaborations with peers from developed countries.

Results The h-index, but not the number of animal behavior papers published by focal researchers, increased with the mean number (but not with the mean proportion) of international co-authors from developed countries, an effect not gender-specific, but that supported the perceived importance of collaborations with peers from developed countries. The number of papers and the individual impact of focal researchers increased with academic age. The number of citations of individual papers increased with journal impact factor, year since publication, but not with the role (first or corresponding author) played by collaborators from developed countries.

Conclusions Our bibliometric and survey-based approach supported that establishing collaborations with researchers from developed countries and publishing in high impact factor journals are correlated with the career-long impact of Chilean-based animal behavioralists, and that this association is not contingent on gender, or influenced by the role (first or corresponding author) played by collaborators.