The object of this research was to examine the scope of research cooperation between Israeli scientists and their colleagues abroad, and the changes that occurred during the period 1972-1984. The basic assumption was that the worsening of research conditions in the country, as a direct result of research budgets curtailment and aging of research equipment, leads to a gradual transfer of research activity to other countries, where it can be conducted under more suitable conditions. The research also examined the difference in the level of research conducted in Israel in comparison to research conducted in cooperation with other countries.
The basis for the research was the data base of the Institute of Science Information (ISI) which provided detailed data about research projects published by Israeli scientists in cooperation with scientists from abroad and without it during the years 1972-1984.
ISI data shows that during the period 1972-1984 about 60,000 scientific publications were published by Israeli scientists in periodicals surveyed by this institute. Most of these (56%) are works which were quoted at least once during that period. It must be remembered that some of the works were not quoted at all because of their young age.
The research results indicated a significant growth in the scope of research cooperation with researchers abroad during the period 1972-1984. The most significant growth is in the quoted group, in which the projects done in cooperation with researchers abroad in 1984 constituted 37% of all projects in comparison to only 14% at the beginning of the period. A significant growth in the scope of cooperation over time was also found in the group whose works were not quoted. However the scope of cooperation in this group of projects is smaller and amounts to half of that typifying the group of quoted research projects.
