The world science scenario has observed, in recent years, an important transformation. With the advent of fairly complete publication databases and the improvement of the Internet a number of world university rankings were created, with a clear bias towards research universities. Also, a new field of scientometrics has been developed, and recent studies have clearly demonstrated that the impact of a publication increases if it is written by authors of more than one country. A general overview of the research collaboration landscape is presented, considering the advantages and problems of international cooperation and the role of research universities. In particular, the case of Ibero-America is explained, with a detailed focus on Brazil. Some interesting practices that have been introduced to improve the degree of internationalization of Brazilian science are shown and discussed. (Contains 5 figures, 5 tables, and 6 notes.)