Betweenness Centrality as a Driver of Preferential Attachment in the Evolution of Research Collaboration Networks

We analyze whether preferential attachment in scientific coauthorship networks is different for authors with different forms of centrality. Using a complete database for the scientific specialty of research about "steel structures," we show that betweenness centrality of an existing node is a significantly better predictor of preferential attachment by new entrants than degree or closeness centrality. During the growth of a network, preferential attachment shifts from (local) degree centrality to betweenness centrality as a global measure. An interpretation is that supervisors of PhD projects and postdocs broker between new entrants and the already existing network, and thus become focal to preferential attachment. Because of this mediation, scholarly networks can be expected to develop differently from networks which are predicated on preferential attachment to nodes with high degree centrality.Comment: Journal of Informetrics (in press

Disaster risk management approaches in construction and built environment: A research collaboration networks perspective

© 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: Currently there is no analysis of the development of disaster risk management literature in the construction and built environment context, the changes in its research paradigms over time and the role of different key players in the advance of its current body of knowledge. This study aims to address that gap by investigating the longitudinal data of disaster risk management literature published over the past three decades. Design/methodology/approach: A social network analysis approach is used in this study to show the overall development of the field and specifically the impact of research collaborations between different organisations and countries on research productivity. Findings: The results indicate that the focus of disaster risk management research in the built environment context is heavily biased towards reactive strategies (response and recovery) over proactive strategies (mitigation and preparedness). The findings also demonstrate that collaboration between disaster risk management researchers has a significant influence on their research productivity. Originality/value: The findings from this study should be of value to researchers, policymakers and academic strategists. This study for the first time shows the ability of the social networks paradigm to reveal frailties in research connections in the field of disaster risk management in construction and built environment and highlights where networking strategies are needed

From Westernization to Internationalization: Research Collaboration Networks of Communication Scholars From Central and Eastern Europe

The internationalization of communication studies has become a trending topic over the past decades, and there have been many efforts to increase the geographical diversity of the discipline. International collaboration has succeeded in internationalizing the field, and different world regions offer particular strategies for cooperation. However, there is no “royal road” for successful internationalization, and different world regions follow their own trajectories. In this article, we discuss the historical, cultural, and disciplinary features of Central and Eastern European (CEE) communication research and then provide an analysis of the region’s international collaboration in research publishing over the past 20 years. Results point to a growing level of CEE internationalization with expanding geographical diversity, but intra-regional collaboration is still weak. We argue that to raise the international competitiveness of the region, CEE communication scholars might have to develop a regional identity by increasing strategic cooperation between different countries of the region.Depto. de Periodismo y Comunicación GlobalFac. de Ciencias de la InformaciónTRUEpu

Effects of Research Funding, Gender and Type of Position on Research Collaboration Networks: A Micro-level Study of Cancer Research at Lund University

The aim of this study is to analyse the extent of which different types of research funding, gender and type of position have an effect on the size and density of research collaboration networks. The material consists of 3,306 documents by scientists doing cancer research at Lund University, indexed in the Web of Science databases. The author and address fields were analysed, by studying frequencies and distribution of authors and organizations, and by conducting co-authorship analyses on the organizational level. The results show substantial differences between scientists with funding from the Swedish Cancer Society (SCS) in comparison with those without SCS funding. When comparing men and women, as well as scientists with preclinical positions and those combining clinical and pre-clinical work; there are larger differences between e.g. women with or without SCS funding than between men and women with SCS funding. The general applicability of these results might be limited; they only take one certain kind of funding into account and they analyses are performed on documents coming out of one particular context. In this case, however, the results suggest that research funding have a larger impact on the size and nature of research collaboration networks than gender or type of position

Institutionalization of Research Administration in Brazil: Some Evidences

The arrangement of different research institutions and partners, including public funding agencies, is mandatory to address the current science, technology and innovation challenges. The access and maintenance of research collaboration networks require high level of competence and efficiency by the organizations. The multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research projects require management and administrative activities to achieve project goals in the expected time and cost, and the Research Administration (RA) professionals can be an important facilitator in the implementation of a governance strategy. The two case studies presented in this article illustrates the creation of RA institutional elements in Brazil that is evidence of the willingness to face the bureaucracy and practical consequences of the disconnection of science, technology and innovation policy actors. The searching for more efficiency and impacting results is directly related to the bureaucracy and transaction costs minimization and the maturity of the STI institutional and governance structure

Analyzing the potential impact of BREXIT on the European research collaboration network

In this work, we study the impact that the withdrawal of institutions from the United Kingdom caused by BREXIT has on the European research collaboration networks. To this aim, we consider BREXIT as a targeted attack to those graphs composed by the European institutions that have collaborated in research projects belonging to the three main H2020 programs (Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership, and Societal Challenges). The consequences of this attack are analyzed at the global, mesoscopic, and local scales and compared with the changes suffered by the same collaboration networks when a similar quantity of nodes is randomly removed from the network. Our results suggest that changes depend on the specific program, with Excellent Science being the most affected by BREXIT perturbation. However, the structure of the integrated collaboration network is not significantly affected by BREXIT compared to the variations observed after the random removal of institutions

Institutionalization of Research Administration in Brazil: Some Evidences

The arrangement of different research institutions and partners, including public funding agencies, is mandatory to address the current science, technology and innovation challenges. The access and maintenance of research collaboration networks require high level of competence and efficiency by the organizations. The multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research projects require management and administrative activities to achieve project goals in the expected time and cost, and the Research Administration (RA) professionals can be an important facilitator in the implementation of a governance strategy. The two case studies presented in this article illustrates the creation of RA institutional elements in Brazil that is evidence of the willingness to face the bureaucracy and practical consequences of the disconnection of science, technology and innovation policy actors. The searching for more efficiency and impacting results is directly related to the bureaucracy and transaction costs minimization and the maturity of the STI institutional and governance structure

A Bibliometric Analysis of Microalgae Research in the World, Europe, and the European Atlantic Area

A bibliographic database of scientific papers published by authors affiliated worldwide, especially focused in Europe and in the European Atlantic Area, and containing the keywords “microalga(e)” or “phytoplankton” was built. A corpus of 79,020 publications was obtained and analyzed using the Orbit Intellixir software to highlight the evolution of the research domain. Publication rates from 1960 to 2019, organization of the research, collaboration networks between countries and organizations, emerging and fading research concepts, major studied species, and associated concepts, as well as journals publishing microalgae research were considered. As a result, of the 79,020 papers published worldwide, 26,137 included authors from Europe (33% of world production) and 6989 from the European Atlantic Area (AA) (27% of European production, 9% of world production). The main worldwide scientific research topics found in this study were phytoplankton, community, bloom, diatoms, distribution, ecosystem, coastal, chlorophyll, zooplankton, photosynthesis, and primary production. At the European scale, the most studied topics were related to the environment, food, chemicals, pigments, protein, feed, and drugs. The highest scientific trends and market opportunities analysis identified bioplastics and biostimulants as top emerging concepts at the European level and agricultural, animal feed, and blue biotechnology at the European AA level