International Contact and Research Performance

The scope of this article is to illuminate the relationship between degree of international contact and research performance among researchers in small countries. Comparisons are done between the natural, medical and social sciences, technology and the humanities. Three indicators on international contact are used: a) an index on contact frequency, b) type of conference attendance, and c) long-term research stays abroad. There is a relatively strong correlation between contact frequency and international publishing activity in all fields of learning. Researchers who were invited to present a paper by conference organizers were considerably more productive than those who gave a paper on their own initiative, and this latter group was in turn much more productive than those researchers who attended without papers. Contrary to other forms of contact, long-term research stays abroad have a very small independent effect on international publishing.