Author Collaboration in Ten Years of IPS²: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

This paper investigates author collaboration at the Conference on Industrial Product-Service Systems (IPS²). Previous work showed that there is only a loose collaboration between authors from different countries in the field of Product-Service System research. This study aims to extend and refine these findings by also taking the authors’ disciplines and affiliations into account. We analyze 694 articles written by a total of 1,131 authors using both bibliometric analysis and a machine learning technique. We identify collaboration patterns that illustrate how researcher communities collaborate within their country, either on countrywide or regional level. Furthermore, the authors’ disciplines also influence their tendency to collaborate with authors from other disciplines. We conclude that a shared cultural background, language, and discipline promote the collaboration of authors from the IPS² community.