Scientific discovery and topological transitions in collaboration networks
Scientific discovery and topological transitions in collaboration networks
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DOI：
10.1016/j.joi.2009.03.001
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发表时间：
2009-07-01
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Kaur, Jasleen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bettencourt, Luis M. A.;Kaiser, David I.;Kaur, Jasleen
我们分析了八个科学领域从成立到成熟的出现和发展，并绘制了它们的合作网络随时间的演变，以科学论文的合著者来衡量。我们表明，作为一个领域的发展，它经历了一个拓扑结构之间的合作结构的一个小的断开图形到一个更大的网络，一个巨大的连接组件的合作出现。因此，最大分量中的边和节点的数量经历了从总数的一小部分到所有出现的大多数之间的过渡。这些结果涉及到许多定性的观察技术的发展和讨论的“结构的科学革命”。我们通过几种定量的图论测量来分析网络拓扑结构的这种质的变化，例如网络最大组件的密度、直径和相对大小。为了分析科学发现的示例，我们基于关键字和引文搜索建立了科学出版物数据库，涉及八个领域，涵盖实验科学和理论科学，涵盖物理学、生物医学科学、和材料科学。每一个数据库都经过实地专家的审查，是为了最大限度地扩大覆盖面，同时尽量减少虚假记录的出现而进行的文献计量搜索的结果。通过这种方式，我们建立了超弦理论、宇宙弦和其他拓扑缺陷、宇宙膨胀、碳纳米管、量子计算和计算、朊病毒和羊瘙痒病以及H5N1流感的出版物和作者的数据库。我们还建立了一个数据库的一个经典的例子“病理”的科学，即冷聚变。所有这些油田的规模和发展的时间模式也各不相同，有些油田从最初可识别的发现开始，（例如碳纳米管），而其他的则以缓慢的发展过程为特征（例如量子计算机和计算）。我们表明，无论其发展道路的详细性质，科学发现过程和新兴领域合作结构的重新安排具有一些普遍特征，表明科学领域的发现和初步形成过程，以发现、发明和随后过渡到“正常科学”的时刻为特征的科学，可以一般地理解为一个认知和社会统一的过程，而这一过程是许多最初独立的努力的结果。病理学领域似乎从未经历过这种转变，尽管有数百篇出版物和许多作者的参与。(C)2009爱思唯尔有限公司保留所有权利。
We analyze the advent and development of eight scientific fields from their inception to maturity and map the evolution of their networks of collaboration over time, measured in terms of co-authorship of scientific papers. We show that as a field develops it undergoes a topological transition in its collaboration structure between a small disconnected graph to a much larger network where a giant connected component of collaboration appears. As a result, the number of edges and nodes in the largest component undergoes a transition between a small fraction of the total to a majority of all occurrences. These results relate to many qualitative observations of the evolution of technology and discussions of the "structure of scientific revolutions". We analyze this qualitative change in network topology in terms of several quantitative graph theoretical measures, such as density, diameter, and relative size of the network's largest component.To analyze examples of scientific discovery we built databases of scientific publications based on keyword and citation searches, for eight fields, spanning experimental and theoretical science, across areas as diverse as physics, biomedical sciences, and materials science. Each of the databases was vetted by field experts and is the result of a bibliometric search constructed to maximize coverage, while minimizing the occurrence of spurious records. In this way we built databases of publications and authors for superstring theory, cosmic strings and other topological defects, cosmological inflation, carbon nanotubes, quantum computing and computation, prions and scrapie, and H5N1 influenza. We also built a database for a classical example of "pathological" science, namely cold fusion. All these fields also vary in size and in their temporal patterns of development, with some showing explosive growth from an original identifiable discovery (e.g. carbon nanotubes) while others are characterized by a slow process of development (e.g. quantum computers and computation).We show that regardless of the detailed nature of their developmental paths, the process of scientific discovery and the rearrangement of the collaboration structure of emergent fields is characterized by a number of universal features, suggesting that the process of discovery and initial formation of a scientific field, characterized by the moments of discovery, invention and subsequent transition into "normal science" may be understood in general terms, as a process of cognitive and social unification out of many initially separate efforts. Pathological fields, seemingly, never undergo this transition, despite hundreds of publications and the involvement of many authors. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.