Authorship analysis of specialized vs diversified research output

TL;DR

This study examines how different types of collaboration relate to specialized versus diversified research output among 23,500 academics over five years, revealing weak associations with some discipline-specific exceptions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of collaboration patterns and their relation to research diversification, highlighting discipline-specific variations.

Findings

Diversified research output is generally not more collaborative than specialized research.

International collaborations are weakly linked to specialized research.

Domestic and intramural collaborations are weakly associated with diversified research.

Abstract

The present work investigates the relations between amplitude and type of collaboration (intramural, extramural domestic or international) and output of specialized versus diversified research. By specialized or diversified research, we mean within or beyond the author's dominant research topic. The field of observation is the scientific production over five years from about 23,500 academics. The analyses are conducted at the aggregate and disciplinary level. The results lead to the conclusion that in general, the output of diversified research is no more frequently the fruit of collaboration than is specialized research. At the level of the particular collaboration types, international collaborations weakly underlie the specialized kind of research output; on the contrary, extramural domestic and intramural collaborations are weakly associated with diversified research. While the weakness of association remains, exceptions are observed at the level of the individual disciplines.