The relative intensity of bilateral and multilateral co-authorship with Russia since 1995

In this paper we introduce a novel implementation of the Relative Intensity of Collaboration (RIC, (Fuchs et al., 2021): we distinguish between relative intensity of bilaterally coauthored (RICbila) and multilaterally coauthored (RICmulti) papers. We calculate both indicators for Russian collaboration 1995-2024 with Belarus, Ukraine, European countries bordering Russia, Belarus, and/or the Black Sea, five other large European countries, and China and the US. We find that the relative intensity of Russian bilateral collaboration with those countries is mostly decreasing, and rapidly falling for Bulgaria, Germany, and Ukraine, countries with which collaboration used to be intense. In contrast, the relative intensity of bilateral collaboration with China is increasing rapidly. The relative intensity of multilateral collaboration is mostly decreasing, although more gradually. We conclude that distinguishing between different collaboration patterns helps in understanding the consequences of geopolitical developments for research collaboration.