Fig 7 -

Visualizations of the three aggregated networks: (a) public, (b) private, and (c) public-private partnership. The size of a node proportionates to its degree centrality value. The thickness of an edge proportionates to its edge weight.</p

The design of the survey questionnaire.

(DOCX)</p

Three prototypical network structures.

Three prototypical network structures.</p

Top-10 collaborations between authors (in respect of <i>tie strength</i>) and scaled network measures (i.e., <i>degree centrality</i> and <i>betweenness centrality</i>) of corresponding collaborators.

<p>Top-10 collaborations between authors (in respect of <i>tie strength</i>) and scaled network measures (i.e., <i>degree centrality</i> and <i>betweenness centrality</i>) of corresponding collaborators.</p

The kernel density estimations of four network measures.

The kernel density estimations of four network measures.</p

Results from the independent sample t-test for four network measures.

Each project is grouped based on its cost performance (within budget or not).</p

Network merging process.

Edge thick in the aggregated network proportionates to the edge weight.</p

Research interdisciplinarity: STEM versus non-STEM

Research collaboration among interdisciplinary teams has become a common trend in recent days. However, there is a lack of evidence in literature regarding which disciplines play dominant roles in interdisciplinary research settings. It is also unclear whether the dominant role of disciplines vary between STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) and non-STEM focused research. This study considers metadata of the research projects funded by the Australian Research Council Discovery Grant Project scheme. Applying network analytics, this study investigates the contribution of individual disciplines in the successfully funded projects. It is noted that the disciplines Engineering, Biological Sciences and Technology appear as the principal disciplines in interdisciplinary research having a STEM focus. By contrast, non-STEM interdisciplinary research is led by three disciplines—Studies in Human Societies, Language, Communication and Culture, and History and Archaeology. For projects entailing interdisciplinarity between STEM and non-STEM disciplines, the STEM discipline of Medical and Health Sciences and the non-STEM disciplines of Psychology and Cognitive Science and Studies in Human Societies appear as the leading contributors. Overall, the network-based visualisation reveals that research interdisciplinarity is implemented in a heterogeneous way across STEM and non-STEM disciplines, and there are gaps in inter-disciplinary collaborations among some disciplines

Conceptualization of the research questions of this study.

<p>(a) Illustration of the first research question (i.e., how the <i>citation count</i> of a scientific paper is affected by the network positions of its all co-author(s) in a co-authorship network?) based on <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057546#pone-0057546-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1C</a>. <i>Avg</i> stands for statistical function <i>Average</i> which is used to normalize different network attributes (i.e., <i>degree centrality</i>, <i>closeness centrality</i> and <i>betweenness centrality</i>) of authors. The “?” symbol above the line indicates, whether or not, the measure on its left hand side has any impact on the measure on its right hand side. (b) Illustration of the second research question (i.e., how the strength of scientific relations (i.e., co-authorship relations) between two authors is affected by their network positions in a co-authorship network?) based on <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0057546#pone-0057546-g001" target="_blank">Figure 1C</a>. <i>Avg</i> and “?” represent the same as like in (a). (c) Summary of research investigations. <i>NP</i> stands for <i>Network Position</i> in respect of network measures considered in this study (i.e., <i>degree centrality</i>, <i>closeness centrality</i> and <i>betweenness centrality</i>), <i>CC</i> stands for <i>Citation Count</i> and <i>TS</i> stands for <i>Tie strength</i>. The symbol ‘↔’ stands, whether the left hand measure of the symbol has any impact on its right hand measure.</p

Network attributes for each author and the <i>tie strength</i> of that author with all her/his co-authors.

<p>Three basic centrality measures (i.e., <i>degree centrality</i>, <i>closeness centrality</i> and <i>betweenness centrality</i>) are considered. CRD stands for ‘<i>Complete Research Dataset</i>’.</p