Empirical analysis of the evolution of a scientific collaboration network

Marco Tomassini and Leslie Luthi

Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, 2007, vol. 385, issue 2, 750-764

Abstract: We present an analysis of the temporal evolution of a scientific coauthorship network, the genetic programming network. We find evidence that the network grows according to preferential attachment, with a slightly sublinear rate. We empirically find how a giant component forms and develops, and we characterize the network by several other time-varying quantities: the mean degree, the clustering coefficient, the average path length, and the degree distribution. We find that the first three statistics increase over time in the growing network; the degree distribution tends to stabilize toward an exponentially truncated power-law. We finally suggest an effective network interpretation that takes into account the aging of collaboration relationships.

Keywords: Network evolution; Preferential attachment; Scientific collaboration; Social networks (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (25)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:385:y:2007:i:2:p:750-764

DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2007.07.028

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