Investigating scientific mobility in co-authorship networks using multilayer temporal motifs

Hanjo D Boekhout,Frank W Takes,Vincent A Traag

doi:10.1017/nws.2021.12

Abstract

AbstractThis paper introduces a framework for understanding complex temporal interaction patterns in large-scale scientific collaboration networks. In particular, we investigate how two key concepts in science studies, scientific collaboration and scientific mobility, are related and possibly differ between fields. We do so by analyzing multilayer temporal motifs: small recurring configurations of nodes and edges.Driven by the problem that many papers share the same publication year, we first provide a methodological contribution: an efficient counting algorithm for multilayer temporal motifs with concurrent edges. Next, we introduce a systematic categorization of the multilayer temporal motifs, such that each category reflects a pattern of behavior relevant to scientific collaboration and mobility. Here, a key question concerns the causal direction: does mobility lead to collaboration or vice versa? Applying this framework to scientific collaboration networks extracted from Web of Science (WoS) consisting of up to 7.7 million nodes (authors) and 94 million edges (collaborations), we find that international collaboration and international mobility reciprocally influence one another. Additionally, we find that Social sciences & Humanities (SSH) scholars co-author to a greater extent with authors at a distance, while Mathematics & Computer science (M&C) scholars tend to continue to collaborate within the established knowledge network and organization.

Highlights

Through technological advances and increasing digital communication, the world is becoming more and more connected
We focus on scientific collaboration networks, co-authorship networks which capture interactions between authors who collaborated on scientific papers
The contributions of this paper are as follows: 1. we extend existing motif counting algorithms to be able to handle concurrent edges; 2. we extend existing motif counting algorithms to enforce edge attribute exclusivity, such that no two edges in a counted motif can have the same attribute value; 3. we introduce a systematic categorization of the meaning of multilayer temporal motifs in the context of scientific collaboration and mobility; 4. we infer typical behavior with respect to scientific co-authorship and mobility in general and for specific scientific fields; and 5. we show that the relationship between international mobility and collaboration exists in both directions, shedding new light on the debate by Kato & Ando (2017)

Summary

Introduction

Through technological advances and increasing digital communication, the world is becoming more and more connected. Small physical distances are no longer a necessity for interactions to occur. By modeling interactions between entities in complex systems as networks, the field of network science aims to understand these systems, their entities and interactions (Barabási, 2016). Network science approaches have provided new insights into a wide variety of complex systems. From social networks, identifying key persons within them (Das et al, 2018), to protein networks, contributing to the understanding of protein structure, folding, stability, function, and dynamics (Chakrabarty & Parekh, 2016), to corporate networks, studying corporate governance practices through links of corporate ownership and shared directors (Takes et al, 2018), and many more. We focus on scientific collaboration networks, co-authorship networks which capture interactions between authors who collaborated on scientific papers

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