On the relationship between the structural and socioacademic communities of a coauthorship network

Marko A. Rodriguez and Alberto Pepe

Journal of Informetrics, 2008, vol. 2, issue 3, 195-201

Abstract: This article presents a study that compares detected structural communities in a coauthorship network to the socioacademic characteristics of the scholars that compose the network. The coauthorship network was created from the bibliographic record of a multi-institution, interdisciplinary research group focused on the study of sensor networks and wireless communication. Four different community detection algorithms were employed to assign a structural community to each scholar in the network: leading eigenvector, walktrap, edge betweenness and spinglass. Socioacademic characteristics were gathered from the scholars and include such information as their academic department, academic affiliation, country of origin, and academic position. A Pearson’s χ2test, with a simulated Monte Carlo, revealed that structural communities best represent groupings of individuals working in the same academic department and at the same institution. A generalization of this result suggests that, even in interdisciplinary, multi-institutional research groups, coauthorship is primarily driven by departmental and institutional affiliation.

Keywords: Social networks; Structures and organization in human complex systems; Community detection; Collaboration patterns (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:2:y:2008:i:3:p:195-201

DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2008.04.002

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