A bibliometric study of research topics, collaboration, and centrality in the iterated prisoner’s dilemma

Abstract

This manuscript explores the research topics and collaborative behaviour of authors in the field of the Prisoner’s Dilemma using topic modeling and a graph theoretic analysis of the co-authorship network. The analysis identified five research topics in the Prisoner’s Dilemma which have been relevant over the course of time. These are human subject research, biological studies, strategies, evolutionary dynamics on networks and modeling problems as a Prisoner’s Dilemma game. Moreover, the results demonstrated the Prisoner’s Dilemma is a field of continued interest, and that it is a collaborative field compared to other game theoretic fields. The co-authorship network suggests that authors are focused on their communities and that not many connections across the communities are made. The most central authors of the network are the authors connected to the main cluster. Through examining the networks of topics, it was uncovered that the main cluster is characterised by the collaboration of authors in a single topic. These findings add to the bibliometrics study in another field and present new questions and avenues of research to understand the reasons for the measured behaviours.

Ageing population and society: a scientometric analysis

“…If two or more research themes are equivalent in their degree centrality, the one with the most significant betweenness centrality is regarded to have the most impact. The greater the betweenness centrality value, the higher the chance of a node in the network being on the shortest path between nodes (Gephi, 2017; Glynatsi and Knight 2021 ). The most important research themes and their connectedness, as demonstrated in Fig.…”

Game Theory and Python: An educational tutorial to game theory and repeated games using Python

“…Game theory itself has a number of subfields and the one considered in this tutorial is the area of repeated games. Repeated games have been the subject of research (Axelrod & Hamilton, 1981;Glynatsi & Knight, 2021;Nowak, 2006) but have also been used extensively as an entry to the subject for students at undergraduate level courses (Brokaw & Merz, 2004;Knight, 2015). This tutorial focuses on the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma.…”

“…Glynatsi et al, (2021). Game Theory and Python: An educational tutorial to game theory and repeated games using Python.…”

The evolution of indirect reciprocity under action and assessment generosity

“…This reputation-based mechanism for the evolution of cooperation is referred to as indirect reciprocity 11 – 14 . In contrast to direct reciprocity 15 – 18 , which is based on repeated interactions between the same players, indirect reciprocity does not require any two individuals to interact with one another more than once. Instead it only requires population members to continually assess each others’ actions, and to act based on these reputations.…”