This article presents a quantitative analysis of the association between doctoral training abroad and international scientific collaboration in four countries – Brazil, Mexico, China and South Korea – in the period 1997-2013. We found distinct patterns of inclusion in the global system of science: Brazil and China are still dependent on the doctoral training in world-class institutions to maintain or increase the internationalization of their knowledge bases; South Korea and Mexico, under the influence of specific conditions and trajectories, are able to maintain its international scientific insertion even reducing doctoral training in world-class institutions abroad. Similar forms with regard to the evolution of the two variables over the period reinforce the plausibility of the association between doctoral training abroad and international scientific collaboration.