Cross-national preference in co-authorship, references and citations

The macro-level country-by-country co-authorship, cross-reference and cross-citation analysis started in our previous paper,1 continues with revealing the cross-national preference stucture of the 36 selected countries. Preference indicators of co-authorship, cross-reference and cross-citation are defined, presented and discussed. The study revealed that geopolitical location, cultural relations and language are determining factors in shaping preferences whether in co-authorship, cross-reference or cross-citation. Areas like Central Europe, Scandinavia, Latin America (supplemented with Spain and Portugal), the Far East or the Australia-New Zealand-South Africa triad form typical clusters with mutually strong preferences towards each other. The USA appears to have a distinguished role enjoying universal preference, which - in the cross-reference and cross-citation case - is asymmetric for the greater part of the countries under study.