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The preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration

Author

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  • Bedoor K. AlShebli

    (Khalifa University of Science and Technology)

  • Talal Rahwan

    (Khalifa University of Science and Technology
    New York University)

  • Wei Lee Woon

    (Khalifa University of Science and Technology
    Expedia Inc.)

Abstract

Inspired by the social and economic benefits of diversity, we analyze over 9 million papers and 6 million scientists to study the relationship between research impact and five classes of diversity: ethnicity, discipline, gender, affiliation, and academic age. Using randomized baseline models, we establish the presence of homophily in ethnicity, gender and affiliation. We then study the effect of diversity on scientific impact, as reflected in citations. Remarkably, of the classes considered, ethnic diversity had the strongest correlation with scientific impact. To further isolate the effects of ethnic diversity, we used randomized baseline models and again found a clear link between diversity and impact. To further support these findings, we use coarsened exact matching to compare the scientific impact of ethnically diverse papers and scientists with closely-matched control groups. Here, we find that ethnic diversity resulted in an impact gain of 10.63% for papers, and 47.67% for scientists.

Suggested Citation

  • Bedoor K. AlShebli & Talal Rahwan & Wei Lee Woon, 2018. "The preeminence of ethnic diversity in scientific collaboration," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-07634-8
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-07634-8
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    Cited by:

    1. Bornmann, Lutz & Haunschild, Robin & Mutz, Rüdiger, 2020. "Should citations be field-normalized in evaluative bibliometrics? An empirical analysis based on propensity score matching," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 14(4).
    2. Malgorzata Wachowska & Magdalena Homa, 2020. "The Role of Ethnic Diversity in Stimulating Innovation Processes: Comparative Analysis of Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(4), pages 1157-1176.
    3. Simson, Rebecca & Harris, J. Andrew, 2022. "Diversity and liberalisation reforms: Evidence from the University of Nairobi," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Hajibabaei, Anahita & Schiffauerova, Andrea & Ebadi, Ashkan, 2022. "Gender-specific patterns in the artificial intelligence scientific ecosystem," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(2).
    5. Wei Fu & Shin-Yi Chou & Li-San Wang, 2022. "NIH Grant Expansion, Ancestral Diversity and Scientific Discovery in Genomics Research," NBER Working Papers 30155, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Xiancheng Li & Luca Verginer & Massimo Riccaboni & P. Panzarasa, 2022. "A network approach to expertise retrieval based on path similarity and credit allocation," Journal of Economic Interaction and Coordination, Springer;Society for Economic Science with Heterogeneous Interacting Agents, vol. 17(2), pages 501-533, April.
    7. Dennis Essers & Francesco Grigoli & Evgenia Pugacheva, 2022. "Network effects and research collaborations: evidence from IMF Working Paper co-authorship," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(12), pages 7169-7192, December.
    8. Kazuki Nakajima & Kazuyuki Shudo & Naoki Masuda, 2023. "Higher-order rich-club phenomenon in collaborative research grant networks," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(4), pages 2429-2446, April.
    9. Bramoullé, Yann & ,, 2022. "Altruism Networks, Income Inequality, and Economic Relations," CEPR Discussion Papers 17000, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    10. Xiaomei Bai & Fuli Zhang & Jinzhou Li & Zhong Xu & Zeeshan Patoli & Ivan Lee, 2021. "Quantifying scientific collaboration impact by exploiting collaboration-citation network," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7993-8008, September.
    11. Lien-Chieh Lee & Yuan Wang & Guozhu Mao & Jian Zuo & Zhibin Wang & Musa J. Sanyang & George Zillante & Yun Sun & Tan Xu, 2021. "Spatial characteristic of environmental protection businesses: a study of A-Share Listed Environmental Companies in China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(12), pages 18598-18617, December.
    12. Uchegbu, Ijeoma, 2021. "Ethnic Diversity in Science," OSF Preprints qnzh6, Center for Open Science.
    13. Gabor Bekes & Gianmarco I. P. Ottaviano, 2022. "Cultural homophily and collaboration in superstar teams," CEP Discussion Papers dp1873, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    14. Yue Wang & Ning Li & Bin Zhang & Qian Huang & Jian Wu & Yang Wang, 2023. "The effect of structural holes on producing novel and disruptive research in physics," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1801-1823, March.
    15. Fengyuan Liu & Petter Holme & Matteo Chiesa & Bedoor AlShebli & Talal Rahwan, 2023. "Gender inequality and self-publication are common among academic editors," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(3), pages 353-364, March.
    16. Matthias Kuppler, 2022. "Predicting the future impact of Computer Science researchers: Is there a gender bias?," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6695-6732, November.
    17. Jielan Ding & Zhesi Shen & Per Ahlgren & Tobias Jeppsson & David Minguillo & Johan Lyhagen, 2021. "The link between ethnic diversity and scientific impact: the mediating effect of novelty and audience diversity," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(9), pages 7759-7810, September.
    18. Yan Leng & Nakash Ali Babwany & Alex Pentland, 2021. "Unraveling the association between socioeconomic diversity and consumer price index in a tourism country," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 8(1), pages 1-10, December.
    19. Yu, Xiaoyao & Szymanski, Boleslaw K. & Jia, Tao, 2021. "Become a better you: Correlation between the change of research direction and the change of scientific performance," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(3).
    20. Yi Bu & Mengyang Li & Weiye Gu & Win‐bin Huang, 2021. "Topic diversity: A discipline scheme‐free diversity measurement for journals," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 72(5), pages 523-539, May.
    21. Sandra Rousseau & Ronald Rousseau, 2021. "Bibliometric Techniques And Their Use In Business And Economics Research," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5), pages 1428-1451, December.
    22. Lu Liu & Benjamin F. Jones & Brian Uzzi & Dashun Wang, 2023. "Data, measurement and empirical methods in the science of science," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 7(7), pages 1046-1058, July.

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