Scientific collaboration of researchers and organizations: a two-level blockmodeling approach

Abstract

The development and successful implementation of R&D policies depends on understanding patterns of scientific collaboration (SC). Existing studies on SC typically focus on the individual level, despite SC occurring on many interdependent social levels. Therefore, this paper provides a simultaneous insight into SC patterns among researchers (individual level) and among organizations (organizational level) in the social sciences. SC on the individual level is operationalized by co-authorship of a scientific paper whereas two organizations are said to collaborate if they share a research project. Based on data for the period 2006–2015 retrieved from Slovenian national information systems, two-level collaboration networks were formed with respect to researchers in the social sciences field. These networks were analyzed using a k-means-based blockmodeling approach for linked networks. The results show a high level of interdisciplinary SC and a large organizational impact on individual collaborations. On the individual level, a structure with several cohesive clusters and a semi-periphery appears while, on the organizational level, a kind a core–periphery structure emerges in which both the core and periphery can be split into several clusters. The most surprising result indicates that SC on the level of organizations is often not reflected in common published scientific papers on the individual level (and vice versa).