Second order indicators for evaluating international scientific collaboration

We propose an indicator to “measure” the extent to which co-publication through international collaboration enhances the value of scientific output of an organisation or agency performing academic research. A second order approach is used which combines a quality proxy (impact) and a quantity or size proxy (number of papers published) to yield a trinity of energy like scalar proxies. From these it is possible to define an index of foreign collaboration and another evenness indicator that shows the size and unevenness of the role foreign collaboration plays in the total academic output of the organization.