Core-periphery dynamics in collaboration networks: the case study of Slovenia

Abstract

The paper presents analysis of core-periphery structure and transition dynamics of individuals between the core and periphery in collaboration networks of Slovenian researchers over 44 years. We observe the dynamics of individuals from three different aspects: regarding the length of the presence in the core-strength, the length of intervals of permanent presence in the core-stability, and the presence in different time periods-balance. We use clustering and classification machine learning techniques in order to automatically group individuals with similar dynamics of behaviour into common classes. We study collaboration networks of Slovenian researchers based on their publication records. The data we used comprises about 18,000 researchers registered in Slovenian national databases of researchers together with their publications from 1970 to 2013.