Collaboration pattern in male breast cancer research

An analysis of 4168 research papers on male breast cancer (MBC) published by different countries and indexed by Science Citation Index Expanded during 2005-2014 indicates that only 15% of the papers were non-collaborative and the rest were published either in domestic or international collaboration. The sub-field of MBC had a high proportion of domestic collaboration. The number of papers written with domestic collaboration was almost three times the number of papers written with international collaboration. The value of co-authorship index (CAI) decreased in single-, two- and multi-authored papers in the second block 2010-2014 as compared to the first block (2005-2009). Higher value of CAI for mega-authored papers reflects higher collaborative coefficient (CC) in 2010-2014. The highest value of CC is for the sub-field S9 (genetics and heredity). This is also indicated by the highest value of CAI for mega-authored papers in this subfield. Among 17 highly productive institutions, CC value is more or equal to the global value of CC for 10 prolific institutions.