  This paper applies a new model and analytical tool to measure and study
contemporary globalization processes in collaborative science - a world in
which scientists, scholars, technicians and engineers interact within a 'grid'
of interconnected research sites and collaboration networks. The building
blocks of our metrics are the cities where scientific research is conducted, as
mentioned in author addresses on research publications. The unit of analysis is
the geographical distance between those cities. In our macro-level trend
analysis, covering the years 2000-2010, we observe that research collaboration
distances have been increasing, while the share of collaborative contacts with
foreign cities has leveled off. Collaboration distances and growth rates differ
significantly between countries and between fields of science. The application
of a distance metrics to compare and track these processes opens avenues for
further studies, both at the meso-level and at the micro-level, into how
research collaboration patterns and trends are driving and shaping the
connectivity fabric of world science.

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