 Betweenness centrality as a driver of preferential attachment in the evolution of research collaboration networksAlireza Abbasi, Liaquat Hossain and Loet Leydesdorff Journal of Informetrics, 2012, vol. 6, issue 3, 403-412 Abstract: We analyze whether preferential attachment in scientific coauthorship networks is different for authors with different forms of centrality. Using a complete database for the scientific specialty of research about “steel structures,” we show that betweenness centrality of an existing node is a significantly better predictor of preferential attachment by new entrants than degree or closeness centrality. During the growth of a network, preferential attachment shifts from (local) degree centrality to betweenness centrality as a global measure. An interpretation is that supervisors of PhD projects and postdocs broker between new entrants and the already existing network, and thus become focal to preferential attachment. Because of this mediation, scholarly networks can be expected to develop differently from networks which are predicated on preferential attachment to nodes with high degree centrality. Keywords: Collaboration; Coauthorship; Network; Preferential attachment; Cumulative advantage; Social network analysis; Centrality (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:infome:v:6:y:2012:i:3:p:403-412 DOI: 10.1016/j.joi.2012.01.002 Access Statistics for this article Journal of Informetrics is currently edited by Leo Egghe More articles in Journal of Informetrics from Elsevier |
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