On the relationship between previous international collaboration and international mobility of scientific researchers

In this study we explore the relationship between previous international collaborations and researchers’ first mobility destinations. Mobility in this study is observed when researchers are affiliated for the first time to a new country different from their country of origin. Previous international collaborations refer to co-authorships across borders that a researcher had before moving for the first time to a new country. Publication records in Dimensions from 1990 to 2020 were used to collect collaboration and mobility information of individual researchers. Of all researchers with mobility, 55.2% had international collaborations before their first move, but only 29.1% had some previous collaborations with their country of destination before their first move. There are differences in the relationships between previous international collaboration and mobility depending on the direction of movement between countries, and the relationship between collaboration and mobility is stronger as researchers advance in their career stages.