Science in international collaboration: Brazilian publications on regenerative medicine

International scientific cooperation has become a key factor in opening new doors to research, publication, and funding for emerging countries. However, it involves asymmetries where emerging countries’ contributions are not valued as highly within the international division of labour in science. This article explored the expansion of regenerative medicine in Brazil by surveying studies by Brazilian researchers alone and those by Brazilians with foreign coauthors during the last two decades. Designed as a qualitative and quantitative study, it analysed local scientific capabilities by drawing upon secondary information and in-depth interviews of the Brazilian and United Kingdom leadership as well as substantial analysis of data on the Web of Science platform. It concluded that in the last decade Brazilian authors have seen a significant increase in their scientific publications with foreign researchers, most especially those in advanced countries, but also those of other emerging economies within and beyond Latin America. Local researchers have also published their own articles that have had global impact. However, these scientific exchanges have not always been fair for Brazilian contributors, which can partly be attributed to ambiguous local regulation on international collaboration and asymmetries in the global structure of scientific activities.