7,593 research outputs found
Collaboration in sensor network research: an in-depth longitudinal analysis of assortative mixing patterns
Many investigations of scientific collaboration are based on statistical
analyses of large networks constructed from bibliographic repositories. These
investigations often rely on a wealth of bibliographic data, but very little or
no other information about the individuals in the network, and thus, fail to
illustrate the broader social and academic landscape in which collaboration
takes place. In this article, we perform an in-depth longitudinal analysis of a
relatively small network of scientific collaboration (N = 291) constructed from
the bibliographic record of a research center involved in the development and
application of sensor network and wireless technologies. We perform a
preliminary analysis of selected structural properties of the network,
computing its range, configuration and topology. We then support our
preliminary statistical analysis with an in-depth temporal investigation of the
assortative mixing of selected node characteristics, unveiling the researchers'
propensity to collaborate preferentially with others with a similar academic
profile. Our qualitative analysis of mixing patterns offers clues as to the
nature of the scientific community being modeled in relation to its
organizational, disciplinary, institutional, and international arrangements of
collaboration.Comment: Scientometrics (In press
The Complex Network of Evolutionary Computation Authors: an Initial Study
EC paper authors form a complex network of co-authorship which is, by itself,
a example of an evolving system with its own rules, concept of fitness, and
patterns of attachment. In this paper we explore the network of authors of
evolutionary computation papers found in a major bibliographic database. We
examine its macroscopic properties, and compare it with other co-authorship
networks; the EC co-authorship network yields results in the same ballpark as
other networks, but exhibits some distinctive patterns in terms of internal
cohesion. We also try to find some hints on what makes an author a sociometric
star. Finally, the role of proceeding editorship as the origin of long-range
links in the co-authorship network is studied as well.Comment: Sociometric study of the Evolutionary Computation community.
Submitted to Evolutionary Computation lette
Collaboration in an Open Data eScience: A Case Study of Sloan Digital Sky Survey
Current science and technology has produced more and more publically
accessible scientific data. However, little is known about how the open data
trend impacts a scientific community, specifically in terms of its
collaboration behaviors. This paper aims to enhance our understanding of the
dynamics of scientific collaboration in the open data eScience environment via
a case study of co-author networks of an active and highly cited open data
project, called Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We visualized the co-authoring
networks and measured their properties over time at three levels: author,
institution, and country levels. We compared these measurements to a random
network model and also compared results across the three levels. The study
found that 1) the collaboration networks of the SDSS community transformed from
random networks to small-world networks; 2) the number of author-level
collaboration instances has not changed much over time, while the number of
collaboration instances at the other two levels has increased over time; 3)
pairwise institutional collaboration become common in recent years. The open
data trend may have both positive and negative impacts on scientific
collaboration.Comment: iConference 201
The Myth of Global Science Collaboration - Collaboration patterns in epistemic communities
Scientific collaboration is often perceived as a joint global process that
involves researchers worldwide, regardless of their place of work and
residence. Globalization of science, in this respect, implies that
collaboration among scientists takes place along the lines of common topics and
irrespective of the spatial distances between the collaborators. The networks
of collaborators, termed 'epistemic communities', should thus have a
space-independent structure. This paper shows that such a notion of globalized
scientific collaboration is not supported by empirical data. It introduces a
novel approach of analyzing distance-dependent probabilities of collaboration.
The results of the analysis of six distinct scientific fields reveal that
intra-country collaboration is about 10-50 times more likely to occur than
international collaboration. Moreover, strong dependencies exist between
collaboration activity (measured in co-authorships) and spatial distance when
confined to national borders. However, the fact that distance becomes
irrelevant once collaboration is taken to the international scale suggests a
globalized science system that is strongly influenced by the gravity of local
science clusters. The similarity of the probability functions of the six
science fields analyzed suggests a universal mode of spatial governance that is
independent from the mode of knowledge creation in science.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl
Recommended from our members
Collaborative yet independent: Information practices in the physical sciences
In many ways, the physical sciences are at the forefront of using digital tools and methods to work with information and data. However, the fields and disciplines that make up the physical sciences are by no means uniform, and physical scientists find, use, and disseminate information in a variety of ways. This report examines information practices in the physical sciences across seven cases, and demonstrates the richly varied ways in which physical scientists work, collaborate, and share information and data.
This report details seven case studies in the physical sciences. For each case, qualitative interviews and focus groups were used to understand the domain. Quantitative data gathered from a survey of participants highlights different information strategies employed across the cases, and identifies important software used for research.
Finally, conclusions from across the cases are drawn, and recommendations are made. This report is the third in a series commissioned by the Research Information Network (RIN), each looking at information practices in a specific domain (life sciences, humanities, and physical sciences). The aim is to understand how researchers within a range of disciplines find and use information, and in particular how that has changed with the introduction of new technologies
Interdisciplinarity and research on local issues: evidence from a developing country
This paper explores the relationship between interdisciplinarity and research
pertaining to local issues. Using Colombian publications from 1991 until 2011
in the Web of Science, we investigate the relationship between the degree of
interdisciplinarity and the local orientation of the articles. We find that a
higher degree of interdisciplinarity in a publication is associated with a
greater emphasis on Colombian issues. In particular, our results suggest that
research that combines cognitively disparate disciplines, what we refer to as
distal interdisciplinarity, tends to be associated with more local focus of
research. We discuss the implications of these results in the context of
policies aiming to foster the local socio-economic impact of research in
developing countries.Comment: 24 page
A New Approach to Analyzing Patterns of Collaboration in Co-authorship Networks - Mesoscopic Analysis and Interpretation
This paper focuses on methods to study patterns of collaboration in
co-authorship networks at the mesoscopic level. We combine qualitative methods
(participant interviews) with quantitative methods (network analysis) and
demonstrate the application and value of our approach in a case study comparing
three research fields in chemistry. A mesoscopic level of analysis means that
in addition to the basic analytic unit of the individual researcher as node in
a co-author network, we base our analysis on the observed modular structure of
co-author networks. We interpret the clustering of authors into groups as
bibliometric footprints of the basic collective units of knowledge production
in a research specialty. We find two types of coauthor-linking patterns between
author clusters that we interpret as representing two different forms of
cooperative behavior, transfer-type connections due to career migrations or
one-off services rendered, and stronger, dedicated inter-group collaboration.
Hence the generic coauthor network of a research specialty can be understood as
the overlay of two distinct types of cooperative networks between groups of
authors publishing in a research specialty. We show how our analytic approach
exposes field specific differences in the social organization of research.Comment: An earlier version of the paper was presented at ISSI 2009, 14-17
July, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Revised version accepted on 2 April 2010 for
publication in Scientometrics. Removed part on node-role connectivity profile
analysis after finding error in calculation and deciding to postpone
analysis
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