Who does big team science?

Abstract

This paper examined the nature of publications in Big Team Science (BTS): large-scale collaborations between multiple researchers at multiple institutions. These projects can improve research by initiating collaborations that span across the globe, age groups, education levels, and subfields of research. As the number of BTS publications increase, it is useful to explore who is currently involved in BTS projects to determine diversity in both research subject and researcher representation. We examined the diversity of BTS publications and authors across more than half a million articles to investigate where and what is currently published, and author characteristics including differences in career length, publication metrics, affiliation, and affiliation geopolitical regions. Interestingly, BTS publications are increasingly dominated by early career researchers from WEIRD geopolitical regions with Health and Physical Science accounting for the majority of BTS articles. However, the increase in preprints, BTS articles, and non-WEIRD authors across time demonstrate the efforts of the science community to diversify its researchers.