Collaboration and topic switches in science
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arXiv
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
| Published: |
2023
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| _version_ | 1866929220620386304 |
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| author | Venturini, Sara Sikdar, Satyaki Rinaldi, Francesco Tudisco, Francesco Fortunato, Santo |
| author_facet | Venturini, Sara Sikdar, Satyaki Rinaldi, Francesco Tudisco, Francesco Fortunato, Santo |
| contents | Collaboration is a key driver of science and innovation. Mainly motivated by the need to leverage different capacities and expertise to solve a scientific problem, collaboration is also an excellent source of information about the future behavior of scholars. In particular, it allows us to infer the likelihood that scientists choose future research directions via the intertwined mechanisms of selection and social influence. Here we thoroughly investigate the interplay between collaboration and topic switches. We find that the probability for a scholar to start working on a new topic increases with the number of previous collaborators, with a pattern showing that the effects of individual collaborators are not independent. The higher the productivity and the impact of authors, the more likely their coworkers will start working on new topics. The average number of coauthors per paper is also inversely related to the topic switch probability, suggesting a dilution of this effect as the number of collaborators increases. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2304_06826 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Collaboration and topic switches in science Venturini, Sara Sikdar, Satyaki Rinaldi, Francesco Tudisco, Francesco Fortunato, Santo Physics and Society Social and Information Networks Collaboration is a key driver of science and innovation. Mainly motivated by the need to leverage different capacities and expertise to solve a scientific problem, collaboration is also an excellent source of information about the future behavior of scholars. In particular, it allows us to infer the likelihood that scientists choose future research directions via the intertwined mechanisms of selection and social influence. Here we thoroughly investigate the interplay between collaboration and topic switches. We find that the probability for a scholar to start working on a new topic increases with the number of previous collaborators, with a pattern showing that the effects of individual collaborators are not independent. The higher the productivity and the impact of authors, the more likely their coworkers will start working on new topics. The average number of coauthors per paper is also inversely related to the topic switch probability, suggesting a dilution of this effect as the number of collaborators increases. |
| title | Collaboration and topic switches in science |
| topic | Physics and Society Social and Information Networks |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.06826 |