Although there has been a considerable increase in collaborative research, the concept is difficult to define, because research collaboration is largely a matter of social convention among scientists. What some might term collaboration, others might regard merely as a loose grouping or an informal network. The following definitions, from a variety of sources, will give some clarity to a complicated phenomenon.

1. Collaboration has been defined as a formal body established by two or more autonomous partners, none of whom is under contract to another but whose aim is to attain substantive or symbolic goals that no partner could achieve independently (Fishbough, 1997).
   
   
2. Corporate Partnerships can be characterized as "means to an end" collaborations. Corporately initiated and owned, the partnership seeks to gain access to external resources. Examples include collaborative bids for funding with other universities or with industry (IRI, 1996).
   
   
3. Community-Based Research refers to a partnership of students, faculty, and community members who come together to engage in research with the purpose of solving a pressing community problem or effecting social change (Strand et al., 2003). Various factors have converged to produce three main community-based research models:

• A popular education model that emphasizes the involvement of people in educating themselves for social change.
  
  
• An action research model that is used by academics in conjunction with major social institutions and involves participants as researchers.
  
  
• A participatory research model that emphasizes the involvement of individuals doing research for social change.