<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><sec><h3>Purpose</h3><p>In this contribution we provide two new co-authorship indicators based on fractional counting.</p></sec><sec><h3>Design/methodology/approach</h3><p>Based on the idea of fractional counting we reflect on what should be an acceptable indicator for co-authorship between two entities. From this reflection we propose an indicator, the co-authorship score, denoted as cs, using the harmonic mean. Dividing this new indicator by the classical co-authorship indicator based on full counting, leads to a co-authorship intensity indicator.</p></sec><sec><h3>Findings</h3><p>We show that the indicators we propose have many necessary or at least highly desirable properties for a proper cs-score. It is pointed out that the two new indicators can be used for countries, but also for institutions and other pairs of entities. A small example shows the feasibility of the co-authorship score and the co-authorship intensity indicator.</p></sec><sec><h3>Research limitations</h3><p>The indicators are not yet tested in real cases.</p></sec><sec><h3>Practical implications</h3><p>As the notions of co-authorship and collaboration have many aspects, we think that our contribution may help policy management to take yet another aspect into account as part of a multi-faceted description of research outcomes.</p></sec><sec><h3>Originality/value</h3><p>The indicators we propose cover yet another aspect of co-authorship.</p></sec></abstract>

PurposeIn this contribution we provide two new co-authorship indicators based on fractional counting.Design/methodology/approachBased on the idea of fractional counting we reflect on what should be an acceptable indicator for co-authorship between two entities. From this reflection we propose an indicator, the co-authorship score, denoted as cs, using the harmonic mean. Dividing this new indicator by the classical co-authorship indicator based on full counting, leads to a co-authorship intensity indicator.FindingsWe show that the indicators we propose have many necessary or at least highly desirable properties for a proper cs-score. It is pointed out that the two new indicators can be used for countries, but also for institutions and other pairs of entities. A small example shows the feasibility of the co-authorship score and the co-authorship intensity indicator.Research limitationsThe indicators are not yet tested in real cases.Practical implicationsAs the notions of co-authorship and collaboration have many aspects, we think that our contribution may help policy management to take yet another aspect into account as part of a multi-faceted description of research outcomes.Originality/valueThe indicators we propose cover yet another aspect of co-authorship.

Bilateral Co-authorship Indicators Based on Fractional Counting

University of Antwerp, Faculty of Social Sciences

Journal of Data and Information Science

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Bilateral Co-authorship Indicators Based on Fractional Counting"}

PurposeIn this contribution we provide two new co-authorship indicators based on fractional counting.Design/methodology/approachBased on the idea of fractional...

Bilateral Co-authorship Indicators Based on Fractional Counting

Article Category: Research Paper

Published Online: Oct 23, 2020

Page range: 1 - 12

Received: Aug 07, 2020

Accepted: Oct 10, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2021-0005

Keywords
Collaboration, Country studies, Fractional counting, Harmonic mean, Co-authorship intensity

© 2021 Ronald Rousseau et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Bilateral Co-authorship Indicators Based on Fractional Counting

Article Category: Research Paper

Published Online: Oct 23, 2020

Page range: 1 - 12

Received: Aug 07, 2020

Accepted: Oct 10, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jdis-2021-0005

KeywordsCollaboration, Country studies, Fractional counting, Harmonic mean, Co-authorship intensity

© 2021 Ronald Rousseau et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
Collaboration, Country studies, Fractional counting, Harmonic mean, Co-authorship intensity