Nature Index Uses Share, a Fractional Count of Authorship Shares, with an Application to Bilateral Collaboration Scores between Universities and Institutions

To make sure that they are not counted more than once, the Nature Index uses Share, a fractional count which takes into account the share of authorship on each article. The total Share available per article is 1, which is shared among all authors under the assumption that each contributed equally. For instance, an article with 10 authors means that each author receives a Share of 0.1. The author’s Share is divided between each institution if he is affiliated with more than one. The total share is calculated by summing the Share for individual authors. The process is the same for countries andritories, but it is more complicated because of the fact that some institutions have overseas labs.

The variation in the number of articles in the Nature Index journals can be described as adjusted share. The percentage difference between the total number of articles and the number of articles in a base year is the basis on which it is arrived at.

The bilateral collaboration score (CS) between two institutions A+B is the sum of each of their Shares on the papers to which both have contributed. A bilateral collaboration can be between any two institutions or countries that will co-author an article in a journal.

Each query will bring a profile page with the country or institution’s recent outputs, from which you can look for more information. The articles can be seen by journal and article. Research outputs are organized by subject area. The pages list the institution or country’s/territory’s top collaborators, as well as its relationship with other organizations. Users can see their institution’s performance over time, and they can also create their own indexes.

A description of the terminology and methodology used in this supplement, and a guide to the functionality that is available free online at natureindex.com.

The South is the North: What do the World Bank and Digital Science data tell us about research in the Latin America, Latin America and the Middle East?

There are caveats. The World Bank split countries due to the fact that there are no definitive boundaries for the north and south. This inevitably leads to some arguable categorizations: South Africa is an upper middle-income country so is a ‘global north’ country in the data, for instance. The same is true for the majority of Latin America. The data from recently added health-sciences journals were not available for analysis, since the data from the Digital Science dimensions database to broaden the subject scope was not available.

Even so, the data are a stark warning that global north–south research equity still has a gulf to cross. It may be a good idea to address the discrepancies in the playing field of publishing and investing real resources. But ultimately, change might have to be driven by the endeavour and determination of researchers.