Commentary Collaborative research : Accomplishments & potential

Although a substantial part of scientific research is collaborative and increasing globalization will probably lead to its increase, very few studies actually investigate the advantages, disadvantages, experiences and lessons learned from collaboration. In environmental epidemiology interdisciplinary collaboration is essential and the contrasting geographical patterns in exposure and disease make multi-location projects essential. This paper is based on a presentation given at the Annual Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology, Paris 2006, and is attempting to initiate a discussion on a framework for studying collaborative research. A review of the relevant literature showed that indeed collaborative research is rising, in some countries with impressive rates. However, there are substantial differences between countries in their outlook, need and respect for collaboration. In many situations collaborative publications receive more citations than those based on national authorship. The European Union is the most important host of collaborative research, mainly driven by the European Commission through the Framework Programmes. A critical assessment of the tools and trends of collaborative networks under FP6, showed that there was a need for a critical revision, which led to changes in FP7. In conclusion, it is useful to study the characteristics of collaborative research and set targets for the future. The added value for science and for the researchers involved may be assessed. The motivation for collaboration could be increased in the more developed countries. Particular ways to increase the efficiency and interaction in interdisciplinary and intercultural collaboration may be developed. We can work towards "the principles of collaborative research" in Environmental Epidemiology. Introduction Collaborative research may be conceptualized as a research effort done by research groups from different disciplines (interdisciplinary collaboration), either belonging to the same country (national) or to more than one country (international) or it may be a parallel research effort by groups from different countries applying the same protocol across various locations or a combination of the above. Collaborative research, mainly from complementary groups within one country, happened in the past. However, increasing globalization, characterized by the facility in communications and exchange of information, is already followed and is likely to continue by an impressive increase in the number, size and diversity of collaborative research projects. This phenomenon is widely recognized; however its characteristics, benefits, drawbacks and efficiency are seldom the objectives of systematic investigation [1]. In Environmental Epidemiology specifically, there are additional reasons for which collaboration in research is very important and there is accumulated experience on Published: 21 January 2008 Environmental Health 2008, 7:3 doi:10.1186/1476-069X-7-3 Received: 20 November 2006 Accepted: 21 January 2008 This article is available from: http://www.ehjournal.net/content/7/1/3 © 2008 Katsouyanni; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.