Scientific co-authorship networks

TL;DR

This paper analyzes the stability of Slovenian scientific co-authorship networks over two decades using advanced blockmodeling and stability indices, revealing discipline-specific and researcher characteristic influences.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive method for assessing co-authorship network stability over time, accounting for core merging, splitting, newcomers, and departures, with application to Slovenian research data.

Findings

Identified stability and instability patterns in research disciplines.

Quantified the impact of researcher characteristics on network stability.

Demonstrated the effectiveness of modified Rand and Wallace indices in network analysis.

Abstract

The paper addresses the stability of the co-authorship networks in time. The analysis is done on the networks of Slovenian researchers in two time periods (1991-2000 and 2001-2010). Two researchers are linked if they published at least one scientific bibliographic unit in a given time period. As proposed by Kronegger et al. (2011), the global network structures are examined by generalized blockmodeling with the assumed multi-core--semi-periphery--periphery blockmodel type. The term core denotes a group of researchers who published together in a systematic way with each other. The obtained blockmodels are comprehensively analyzed by visualizations and through considering several statistics regarding the global network structure. To measure the stability of the obtained blockmodels, different adjusted modified Rand and Wallace indices are applied. Those enable to distinguish between the splitting and merging of cores when operationalizing the stability of cores. Also, the adjusted modified indices can be used when new researchers occur in the second time period (newcomers) and when some researchers are no longer present in the second time period (departures). The research disciplines are described and clustered according to the values of these indices. Considering the obtained clusters, the sources of instability of the research disciplines are studied (e.g., merging or splitting of cores, newcomers or departures). Furthermore, the differences in the stability of the obtained cores on the level of scientific disciplines are studied by linear regression analysis where some personal characteristics of the researchers (e.g., age, gender), are also considered.