The strength of strong ties in scientific collaboration networks

Network topology and its relationship to tie strengths may hinder or enhance the spreading of information in social networks. We study the correlations between tie strengths and topology in networks of scientific collaboration, and show that these are very different from ordinary social networks. For the latter, it has earlier been shown that strong ties are associated with dense network neighborhoods, while weaker ties act as bridges between these. Because of this, weak links act as bottlenecks for the diffusion of information. We show that on the contrary, in co-authorship networks dense local neighborhoods mainly consist of weak links, whereas strong links are more important for overall connectivity. The important role of strong links is further highlighted in simulations of information spreading, where their topological position is seen to dramatically speed up spreading dynamics. Thus, in contrast to ordinary social networks, weight-topology correlations enhance the flow of information across scientific collaboration networks.Comment: 6 Pages, 6 Figures, Published version, Minor changes, Results also verified using new weight-schem

Quantifying the consistency of scientific databases

Science is a social process with far-reaching impact on our modern society. In the recent years, for the first time we are able to scientifically study the science itself. This is enabled by massive amounts of data on scientific publications that is increasingly becoming available. The data is contained in several databases such as Web of Science or PubMed, maintained by various public and private entities. Unfortunately, these databases are not always consistent, which considerably hinders this study. Relying on the powerful framework of complex networks, we conduct a systematic analysis of the consistency among six major scientific databases. We found that identifying a single "best" database is far from easy. Nevertheless, our results indicate appreciable differences in mutual consistency of different databases, which we interpret as recipes for future bibliometric studies.Comment: 20 pages, 5 figures, 4 table

Keynote: The Small World of Material Handling Rearch

Keynote Addres

The evolution of interdisciplinarity in physics research

Science, being a social enterprise, is subject to fragmentation into groups that focus on specialized areas or topics. Often new advances occur through cross-fertilization of ideas between sub-fields that otherwise have little overlap as they study dissimilar phenomena using different techniques. Thus to explore the nature and dynamics of scientific progress one needs to consider the large-scale organization and interactions between different subject areas. Here, we study the relationships between the sub-fields of Physics using the Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme (PACS) codes employed for self-categorization of articles published over the past 25 years (1985-2009). We observe a clear trend towards increasing interactions between the different sub-fields. The network of sub-fields also exhibits core-periphery organization, the nucleus being dominated by Condensed Matter and General Physics. However, over time Interdisciplinary Physics is steadily increasing its share in the network core, reflecting a shift in the overall trend of Physics research.Comment: Published version, 10 pages, 8 figures + Supplementary Informatio

The Small World of Material Handling Research

Using data from 88 journals over an 8 year period, we investigate the relationships among researchers in material handling. We apply social network analysis to measure many attributes of the network, including papers published each year, papers published per author, number of collaborators per author, strength of collaboration between authors, and how influential an author is in the network. We observe that collaboration patterns in material handling follow a scale-free structure in the presence of some hub-like researchers. According to social network theory, these hub researchers facilitate rapid dissemination of knowledge in the network. We conclude that the scientific community in material handling indeed forms a “small world,” yet the level of connectedness is lower than in other scientific networks. We hope these findings will inspire new and increasing levels of collaboration in the discipline

Network Effects on Scientific Collaborations

Background: The analysis of co-authorship network aims at exploring the impact of network structure on the outcome of scientific collaborations and research publications. However, little is known about what network properties are associated with authors who have increased number of joint publications and are being cited highly. Methodology/Principal Findings: Measures of social network analysis, for example network centrality and tie strength, have been utilized extensively in current co-authorship literature to explore different behavioural patterns of co-authorship networks. Using three SNA measures (i.e., degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality), we explore scientific collaboration networks to understand factors influencing performance (i.e., citation count) and formation (tie strength between authors) of such networks. A citation count is the number of times an article is cited by other articles. We use co-authorship dataset of the research field of 'steel structure' for the year 2005 to 2009. To measure the strength of scientific collaboration between two authors, we consider the number of articles co-authored by them. In this study, we examine how citation count of a scientific publication is influenced by different centrality measures of its co-author(s) in a co-authorship network. We further analyze the impact of the network positions of authors on the strength of their scientific collaborations. We use both correlation and regression methods for data analysis leading to statistical validation. We identify that citation count of a research article is positively correlated with the degree centrality and betweenness centrality values of its co-author(s). Also, we reveal that degree centrality and betweenness centrality values of authors in a co-authorship network are positively correlated with the strength of their scientific collaborations. Conclusions/Significance: Authors' network positions in co-authorship networks influence the performance (i.e., citation count) and formation (i.e., tie strength) of scientific collaborations. © 2013 Uddin et al.published_or_final_versio

the shape of collaborations

Abstract The structure of scientific collaborations has been the object of intense study both for its importance for innovation and scientific advancement, and as a model system for social group coordination and formation thanks to the availability of authorship data. Over the last years, complex networks approach to this problem have yielded important insights and shaped our understanding of scientific communities. In this paper we propose to complement the picture provided by network tools with that coming from using simplicial descriptions of publications and the corresponding topological methods. We show that it is natural to extend the concept of triadic closure to simplicial complexes and show the presence of strong simplicial closure. Focusing on the differences between scientific fields, we find that, while categories are characterized by different collaboration size distributions, the distributions of how many collaborations to which an author is able to participate is conserved across fields pointing to underlying attentional and temporal constraints. We then show that homological cycles, that can intuitively be thought as hole in the network fabric, are an important part of the underlying community linking structure

IT professionals' information behaviour on Twitter

Background Twitter is widely used as a communication medium, and an electronic word-of-mouth. A literature search found no previous empirical study of microblogging platforms as “places”, and how they are used for professional communication and networking. Objectives This study aimed to understand information technology (IT) professionals’ information behaviour in microblogging on Twitter. Methods The data were collected using online observation and interviews, and analysed using constructivist grounded theory. Results Twitter is used by IT professionals mainly for professional networking, professional work and professional development. The data highlighted the inter-relatedness of information-sharing and professional networking. Information acts as a trigger to create human networks, as information sharing and information encountering lead to serendipitous discovery of useful IT experts. Twitter is an information ground (Fisher, 2005) where IT professionals encounter not only information but also experts and even work and project opportunities. The more IT professionals share information that is related to his or her expertise, the greater the chance to be noticed and acknowledged as an IT expert. Significance The study has shed some light on how Twitter is used for professional networking in a strategic manner to advance professional goals. The findings can assist organisations to better understand and provide for this emerging channel of professional information-sharing for their staff and stakeholders