Map of the Day: Scientific Collaboration Around the World

Impressed with the Facebook map made by intern Paul Butler depicting friendships connecting users across the world, research analyst Olivier Beauchesne at Science-Metrix created a similar map showing scientific collaborations around the globe. Using a large database of scientific papers published between 2005 and 2009, Beauchesne drew connections between cities when two authors from different locations collaborated on a paper together. Then, using a similar method to that of Butler's Facebook creation, Beauchesne crafted this map, where brighter lines indicate more scientific collaboration between cities.

Looking at the world map, most of the partnerships Beauchesne found connected American and European researchers. It also shows a decent amount of research happening in Japan and Brazil. But, perhaps that has something to do with Beauchesne's sample.

Zooming in, here's the collaboration happening in Europe:

And, here's how it looks in the United States:

H/T Richard Florida and Kevin Stolarick.