Publication: Detecting Research Groups in Coauthorship Networks
Loading...
Identifiers
Publication date
2008
Defense date
Advisors
Tutors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institut für Bibliotheks- und Informationswissenschaft
Impact
Export
Abstract
From the perspective of Library Science and
Information Science, little research has yet been conducted on scientific networking and its possible uses in ascertaining the composition of research groups, the differences in associations between specialities or departments, and the
different policies that may be followed in this regard, depending on the institution or the domain analyzed. Traditionally, most studies on scientific collaboration have been geared to analyzing output, be it international or domestic, of a given scientific discipline or a research
institution. Studies on smaller units such as departments or research groups are less common.
This work focuses on a specific facet of scientific communication networks, namely scientific co-authorship networks, based on the premise that scientific communication is the essence of research, and research is only known as such when it has been analyzed and accepted by the scientific community, which gives it the status of a social activity. The use of the term “scientific
communication”, therefore, means deliberately
limiting considerations on communication to a
specific group of individuals (authors directly involved in the creation of original research work): those engaging in a well-defined activity and having very specific objectives.
The main objective of this work is to identify, characterize and interpret research groups in Carlos III University of Madrid using empirical analysis, through the examination and visualization of scientific networking based on coauthorship papers. The findings obtained will contribute to a better understanding of network dynamics and of how they affect network topology
and the internal structure of links among
such research groups, and by extension, how
they affect the higher-level administrative units of which they form a part. To this end, this work will try to achieve two specific objectives: on one hand, to model and characterize coauthorship networks by calculating indicators of the properties of nodes and links that describe sizes and neighbourhoods in subgraphs, as well
as to obtain comprehensive measurements that
statistically characterize the structure of network interconnections as a whole. On the other hand, to create specialized network-based visualizations, including diagrams of nodes and links, that can be used as interfaces to retrieve information.
These interfaces provide data on the
element matrices and on the values of their attributes in a clear, easily understood, explanatory and interactive way. They facilitate an understanding of the structural context represented, transmitting detailed information to the user about a variety of aspects relating to scientific
collaboration and its evolution over time,
such as administrative position, gender, speciality areas of research and the internal and external association patterns among authors.
Description
Fourth International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics & Ninth COLLNET Meeting. Berlin (Germany), 28 July - 1 August, 2008.
Keywords
Bibliographic citation
H. Kretschmer & F. Havemann (Eds.): Proceedings of WIS 2008, Fourth International Conference on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics & Ninth COLLNET Meeting, 2008, p. 1-6