Internal factors promoting research collaboration problems: an input-process-output analysis

Research collaborations are crucial for scientific progress, but their success is often compromised by internal collaboration problems. While previous work is often small-scaled and largely based on case studies and qualitative work, we present a large-scale, quantitative, and representative study to investigate important drivers behind research collaboration problems in various disciplines. Based on an input-process-output framework and with a focus on research clusters, we investigated the occurrence of four crucial research collaboration problems: fairness, commitment, difference, and cohesion problems. Based on a sample of 5.306 researchers, we identified several input and process variables that could reduce collaboration problems in research collaborations including gender heterogeneity, conflict mediation by a cluster’s spokesperson, the synthesis of results, and the collaborative development of common goals. We discuss that these problems are often rooted in the science system itself and provide important guidelines and implications for stakeholders, funding bodies, and involved researchers on how to reduce collaboration problems in research collaborations.