Has globalization strengthened South Korea’s national research system? National and international dynamics of the Triple Helix of scientific co-authorship relationships in South Korea

We trace the structural patterns of co-authorship between Korean researchers at three institutional types (university, government, and industry) and their international partners in terms of the mutual information generated in these relations. Data were collected from the Web of Science during the period 1968–2009. The traditional Triple-Helix indicator was modified to measure the evolving network of co-authorship relations. The results show that international co-authorship relations have varied considerably over time and with changes in government policies, but most relations have become stable since the early 2000s. In other words, the national publication system of Korea has gained some synergy from R&D internationalization during the 1990s, but the development seems to stagnate particularly at the national level: whereas both university and industrial collaborations are internationalized, the cross-connection within Korea has steadily eroded.