The growing importance of collaboration in research and the still underdeveloped state-of-the-art of research on collaboration have encouraged scientists from16 countries to establish a global interdisciplinary research network under the title “Collaboration in Science and in Technology” (COLLNET)with Berlin as its virtual centre which has been set up on January 1st, 2000.The network is to comprise the prominent scientists, who work at present mostly in the field of quantitative science studies. The intention is to work together in co-operation both on theoretical and applied aspects.
A chronically weak area in research papers, reports, and reviews is the complete identification of background documents that formed the building blocks for these papers. A method for systematically determining these seminal references is presented. Citation-Assisted Background (CAB) is based on the assumption that seminal documents tend to be highly cited. CAB is being applied presently to three applications studies, and the results so far are much superior to those used by the first author for background development in any other study. An example of the application of CAB to the field of Nonlinear Dynamics is outlined. While CAB is a highly systematic approach for identifying seminal references, it is not a substitute for the judgement of the researchers, and serves as a supplement.
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