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Measuring the stability of scientific collaboration

Author

Listed:
  • Yi Bu

    (Indiana University)

  • Dakota S. Murray

    (Indiana University)

  • Ying Ding

    (Indiana University
    Wuhan University)

  • Yong Huang

    (Wuhan University)

  • Yiming Zhao

    (Wuhan University)

Abstract

Stability has long been regarded as an important characteristic of many natural and social processes. In regards to scientific collaborations, we define stability to reflect the consistent investment of a certain amount of effort into a relationship. In this paper, we provide an explicit definition of a new indicator of stability, based on the year-to-year publication output of collaborations. We conduct a large-scale analysis of stability among collaborations between authors publishing in the field of computer science. Collaborations with medium–high degree of stability tend to occur most frequently, and on average, have the highest average scientific impact. We explore other “circumstances”, reflecting the composition of collaborators, that may interact with the relationship between stability and impact, and show that (1) Transdisciplinary collaborations with low stability leads to high impact publications; (2) Stable collaboration with the collaborative author pairs showing greater difference in scientific age or career impact can produce high impact publications; and (3) Highly-cited collaborators whose publications have a large number of co-authors do not keep stable collaborations. We also demonstrate how our indicator for stability can be used alongside other similar indicators, such as persistence, to better understand the nature of scientific collaboration, and outline a new taxonomy of collaborations.

Suggested Citation

  • Yi Bu & Dakota S. Murray & Ying Ding & Yong Huang & Yiming Zhao, 2018. "Measuring the stability of scientific collaboration," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 114(2), pages 463-479, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:scient:v:114:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s11192-017-2599-0
    DOI: 10.1007/s11192-017-2599-0
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Dong, Ke & Wu, Jiang & Wang, Kaili, 2021. "On the inequality of citation counts of all publications of individual authors," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 15(4).
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    3. Evelyn Eika & Frode Eika Sandnes, 2022. "Starstruck by journal prestige and citation counts? On students’ bias and perceptions of trustworthiness according to clues in publication references," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 127(11), pages 6363-6390, November.
    4. Frode Eika Sandnes, 2021. "A bibliometric study of human–computer interaction research activity in the Nordic-Baltic Eight countries," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(6), pages 4733-4767, June.
    5. Liyin Zhang & Yuchen Qian & Chao Ma & Jiang Li, 2023. "Continued collaboration shortens the transition period of scientists who move to another institution," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 128(3), pages 1765-1784, March.
    6. Shen, Hongquan & Xie, Juan & Ao, Weiyi & Cheng, Ying, 2022. "The continuity and citation impact of scientific collaboration with different gender composition," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(1).
    7. 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.
    8. Shen, Hongquan & Cheng, Ying & Ju, Xiufang & Xie, Juan, 2022. "Rethinking the effect of inter-gender collaboration on research performance for scholars," Journal of Informetrics, Elsevier, vol. 16(4).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Scientific collaboration; Stability; Persistence; Scientometrics;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • O35 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Social Innovation

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