Scientific collaboration between BRICS countries

The five BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) are among the most important developing countries. They are joined in an association to foster mutual development. In their meetings officials have made statements on the importance of scientific collaboration. The present article analyses scientific collaborations between the five countries using co-authorships of scientific products. Gross counts, Salton's indexes and Jaccard coefficients, as well as probabilistic affinity indexes (PAI) are calculated to highlight the different dimensions of inter-BRIC collaborations, as well as their evolution. Collaboration with external actors, and in different scientific sub-areas, is also measured. Bilateral collaborations are heterogeneous. PAIs, which are size independent, show that the trends of inter-BRICS collaborations are stable with time. Heterogeneity across different scientific areas is also present. At the end of the article results are discussed, and policy suggestions are offered.