From the Cover: The structure of scientific collaboration networks
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.
- Publication:
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
- Pub Date:
- January 2001
- DOI:
- 10.1073/pnas.98.2.404
- arXiv:
- arXiv:cond-mat/0007214
- Bibcode:
- 2001PNAS...98..404N
- Keywords:
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- From the Cover;
- Condensed Matter - Statistical Mechanics
- E-Print:
- 7 pages, 3 postscript figures