Evolution of the social network of scientific collaborations

Abstract

The co-authorship network of scientists represents a prototype of complex evolving networks. By mapping the electronic database containing all relevant journals in mathematics and neuro-science for an eight-year period (1991-98), we infer the dynamic and the structural mechanisms that govern the evolution and topology of this complex system. First, empirical measurements allow us to uncover the topological measures that characterize the network at a given moment, as well as the time evolution of these quantities. The results indicate that the network is scale-free, and that the network evolution is governed by preferential attachment, affecting both internal and external links. However, in contrast with most model predictions the average degree increases in time, and the node separation decreases. Second, we propose a simple model that captures the network's time evolution. Third, numerical simulations are used to uncover the behavior of quantities that could not be predicted analytically.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figure

Scientific authorships and collaboration network analysis on Chagas disease: papers indexed in PubMed (1940-2009)

“…Previous studies have demonstrated that scientific communities and research groups endure longer if they have a strong, active nucleus of members, suggesting that a stable core of investigators is fundamental to ensuring the longterm sustainability of the groups. More importantly, these authors play an important role in terms of cultivating the scientific community and integrating new members (WU et al 2009;BARABASI et al 2002).…”

“…Likewise, they can describe the degree of interaction and the influence of different agents or groups within the research community (GONZÁLEZ ALCAIDE et al 2010;NEWMAN 2001). The use of SNA has seen considerable development in the past several years (MELIN & PERSSON 1996), complementing and deepening the initial approaches taken since the 1960s in the field of bibliometrics (first by PRICE and then by CRANE) in relation to the concept of "invisible colleges" and the analysis of citation and co-citation networks (BARABASI et al 2002;CRANE 1969;MULLINS 1980;PRICE 1965;PRICE 1966).…”

Tréplica - Redes de Indivíduos e Redes de Instituições como Redes e, Claro, Organizações

“…Tanto que, ao observar as redes nas quais os atores são os docentes e/ou pesquisadores e as conexões entre eles são evidenciadas pela partilha de autoria de trabalhos de pesquisa (A. Silva, Matheus, Parreiras, & Parreiras, 2006;Barabási et al, 2002;Newman, 2001a), percebe-se que o progresso da ciência depende -de forma preponderante -dessas associações (Autry & Griffis, 2005).…”

Event-driven modelling of evolving social networks

“…First, collaborative networks have been widely used in scientometrics and social networks studies. Second, collaboration networks have been known to possess many static and dynamic properties that are similar to other social networks (Barabasi et al, 2002;Newman, 2004).…”

“…Many real-world complex networks have been shown to exhibit a common set of properties. The properties include power-law degree distributions (Barabasi, 2003), the small world effect (Barabasi, 2003), assortative mixing Redner, 2008), and kinetic properties exhibited in the growing process of social networks (Barabasi et al, 2002;Kumar et al, 2006;Leskovec et al, 2005), e.g., the shrinking diameter phenomenon. These properties in real networks represent a significant departure from random networks (Bollobas, 2001).…”