Quantifying the impact of strong ties in international scientific research collaboration

Tie strength has been examined as an antecedent of creativity. Although it has been discovered that international collaboration affects scientific performance, the effect of tie strength in the international collaboration network has been largely neglected. Based on international publications of 72 countries/regions published from 1993 to 2013, we combine descriptive and panel regression methods to examine how the bonding of strong collaboration ties contributes to countries’ international scientific performance. Strong ties occur at an average rate of 1 in 4 collaborators, whereas countries/regions share on average 84% of articles with their strong-tie collaborators. Our quantitative results provide an explanation for this phenomenon in international collaboration: the establishment of a strong tie relationship contributes to above-average productivity and citation frequency for countries/regions. To further explore which types of strong ties tend to have stronger citation impact, we analyse the relationship between persistent and stable collaboration and publication citation impact. Experimental results show that international collaborations with greater persistence and moderate stability tend to produce high impact publications. It is noteworthy that when the collaboration period is divided into different time intervals, similar findings can be found after the same analysis procedure is carried out. This indicates that our conclusions are robust. Overall, this study provides quantitative insights into the added value of long-term commitment and social trust associated with strong collaborative partnerships in international collaboration.