International collaboration is now integral to academic research, with the Collaboration Category Normalised Citation Impact (Collab CNCI) indicator formulated to specifically account for this. Here, Collab CNCI is used independently, as well as in concert with other CNCI variants (the standard method and fractional counting), to derive and showcase important and otherwise hidden insights into three countries’ (Australia, China Mainland, Sri Lanka) research output. By deconstructing output into different collaboration types, as well as analysing data at both national and institutional levels, highly multilateral papers are shown to directly influence and in some cases (Sri Lanka) dominate a country’s CNCI performance. Such information is critical to be able to fully understand and responsibly compare research performance and consequently drive better informed policy and funding decisions.