Italian to English Medical Medical: Instruments survey of experts

this is from a repot on a survey regarding a medical device:

Its in relation to how relationships among respondents can be elucidated from their publications.

"La proxy delle relazioni di collaborazione è stata individuata nel numero delle coauthorship presenti in articoli pubblicati su riviste scientifiche internazionali"

I'm niot sure what proxy means here - the usual English meaning or would an Italian author use it to mean something else?