The structure of scientific collaboration networks
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98 (2):
404-409 (2001)DOI: 10.1073/pnas.98.2.404
Abstract
The structure of scientific collaboration networks is investigated.
Two scientists are considered connected if they have authored a paper
together and explicit networks of such connections are constructed by
using data drawn from a number of databases, including MEDLINE
(biomedical research), the Los Alamos e-Print Archive (physics), and
NCSTRL (computer science). I show that these collaboration networks
form “small worlds,” in which randomly chosen pairs of scientists
are typically separated by only a short path of intermediate
acquaintances. I further give results for mean and distribution of
numbers of collaborators of authors, demonstrate the presence of
clustering in the networks, and highlight a number of apparent
differences in the patterns of collaboration between the fields
studied.
Description
The structure of scientific collaboration networks
