Disparity in the Evolving COVID-19 Collaboration Network

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic started in late 2019 and scientists contributed to the unexpected coronavirus research promptly. Our project traces 712,294 scientists' publications related to COVID-19 for two years, from January 2020 to December 2021. Our paper emphasizes on the dynamic evolution of COVID-19 collaboration network over time. By studying the collaboration network of COVID-19 scientists, we observe how a pure new scientific community has been built in preparation for a sudden shock. The number of newcomers grows incrementally, and the connectivity of the collaboration network shifts from loose to tight over time. Even though this pandemic provides equal opportunities for every scientist to start a study, collaboration disparity still exists. Only a few top authors are highly connected with other authors, following the scale-free distribution. These top authors are more likely to attract newcomers and work with each other. As the collaboration network evolves, the increase rate in the probability of attracting newcomers for authors with higher degree increases, whereas the increase rates in the probability of forming new links among authors with higher degree decreases.

Changing Structures in Transnational Research Networks: An Analysis of the Impact of Covid-19 on China's Scientific Collaborations

“…Switching to ex post evaluations, Carvalho et al (2023) suggested that the pandemic event induced the academic community to reduce traditional power disparities, promoting enhanced globalism in scientific endeavors. These findings are also partially confirmed by Xu et al (2023), who found that the pandemic induced more collaboration between star scientists and newcomers, which ultimately reduced collaboration disparity. Carvalho et al (2023) also stress the relevance of countries such as the U.S., China, Great Britain, and India in COVID-19-related publications, with India playing an especially prominent role in vaccine-related research (Zhao et al, 2022).…”