david/Analysis of Scientific Collaboration and Citation Networks

Scientific collaboration networks are graphs whose nodes represent authors of scientific articles, with two authors joined by an edge if they have co-authored an article. Such networks provide a well-documented representation of how collaborative science is performed.

Citation networks are directed graphs whose nodes represent published articles, with an edge from A to B indicating that B cites A. Citation networks can be used to understand how scientific ideas develop, as well as how they are communicated. They may also aid in identifying important and infulential ideas.

Collaboration and citation networks have been analyzed by several authors as examples of social networks, but this analysis has been aimed principally at contributing to the understanding of networks or of scientific development in general. More specific and direct applications of such analysis could include:

• Selection of appropriate referees for a new manuscript

• Determination of impact of funding programs

• Recognition of systematic manipulation of bibliometric measures

• Assistance for researchers familiarizing themselves with a new subfield

• Recognition of newly appearing articles that may be of interest to a researcher

Many other applications are possible. The aim of this project is to

• Assemble databases of collaboration and citation data

• Develop tools for their analysis

• Apply these tools to answer practical questions of interest like those above