Rapid growth of international collaboration from articles indexed in Scopus database by researchers in Korea from 2006 to 2015

It aimed at analyzing the trends of international collaboration from articles indexed in Scopus by researchers in Korea from 2006 to 2015. The number of articles coauthored by researchers in Korea and those in selected foreign countries was obtained from document searches of the Scopus database. The growth of research collaboration in various academic disciplines was also studied. There were 22 countries which produced over 2,000 papers in collaboration with researchers in Korea during the ten-year period between 2006 and 2015. The average of the average annual growth rate taken over these 22 countries was 12.9%. In 9 additional Asian, Latin American, and African countries, more rapid growth of international research collaboration was clearly seen. Though research collaboration is most active in the field of physics and astronomy with most countries, it was found that the growth of collaboration in medicine was most remarkable in Southeast Asian countries. It may be originated from the intimate relationship between Korea and Southeast Asia and the leadership of Korean physicians in that region