The democracy-science relationship has traditionally been examined through philosophical conjecture and single country case studies. There remains limited global scale empirical research on the topic. This study explores country level factors related to the dynamics of the global scientific research collaboration network, focusing on structural associations between democratic governance and the strength of international research collaboration ties. This study combines longitudinal data on 170 countries between 2008 and 2017 from the Varieties of Democracy Institute, World Bank Indicators, Scopus, and Web of Science bibliometric data. Methods of analysis include descriptive network analysis, temporal exponential random graph models (TERGM), and valued exponential random graph models (VERGM). The results suggest positive significant effects of democratic governance on the formation and strength of international research collaboration ties, as well as homophily between countries with similar levels of democratic governance. The results also show the importance of exogenous factors, such as GDP, population size, and geographical distance, as well as endogenous network factors including preferential attachment and transitivity.

翻译：民主与科学的关系传统上主要通过哲学推论和单一国家案例研究进行考察，该主题在全球范围内的实证研究仍十分有限。本研究探究与全球科研合作网络动态相关的国家层面因素，重点关注民主治理与国际科研合作纽带强度之间的结构性关联。本研究整合了来自多样性民主研究所、世界银行指标、Scopus和Web of Science文献计量数据的170个国家2008-2017年间的纵向数据。分析方法包括描述性网络分析、时态指数随机图模型(TERGM)和价值指数随机图模型(VERGM)。结果表明，民主治理对国际科研合作纽带的形成与强度具有显著正向影响，且存在民主治理水平相似国家间的同质性效应。研究结果同时揭示了GDP、人口规模、地理距离等外生因素，以及优先依附和传递性等内生网络因素的重要性。