Figure 22. Extent of International Collaboration in Autism Research, 1980 to 2010.

Two line graphs. The line graph on top displays the number of ASD publications on the y-axis, from zero to 2,000 and the year of publication, from 1980 to 2010, is plotted on the x-axis.  Two groups are graphed, including publications with authors from only one country and publications with authors from multiple countries.  The line graph shows that the number of publications from a single country and publications stemming from multi-country collaborations have increased appreciably since the mid- to late-1990s.  Publications from single countries have always outnumbered those from authors in multiple countries, and in 2010 there were 1,615 publications from single country authors compared to 359 publications from multi-country authors.  

The second line graph on the bottom of the figure plots the proportion of multi-country publications on the y-axis, for each year from 1980 to 2010.  Two groups are graphed, ASD related publications and publications from similar journal subject categories. Both groups show a gradual increase in the number of publications that list authors from multiple countries. For ASD publications, the proportion increased from 2% in 1980 to 22% in 2010.  In the same time period for publications in similar journal subject categories, the proportion rose from 4% to 25%.