Delineation and analysis of co-authorship network among the academics of School of Dentistry in Kerman University of Medical Sciences in 2013 using network analysis method

Document Type : Original Article(s)

Authors

1 Kerman Neuroscience Research Center, Institute of Neuropharmacology, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

2 PhD Student, Department of Watershed Management, School of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources, University in Gorgan, Gorgan, Iran

3 Assistant Professor, Medical Informatics Research Center, Institute of Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

4 Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, School of Public Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

5 Associate Professor, Social Determinants of Health Research Center, Institute for Futures Studies in Health, Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Kerman, Iran

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND AIM: This study aims to explore the co-authorship in School of Dentistry at Kerman University of Medical Sciences, Iran, in three levels; individuals, other schools of KUU, and beyond the university.METHODS: This is a cross-sectional study which is a part of a larger study conducted from September 2014 to December 2014. A comprehensive search in Scopus was conducted to find related articles published in 2013 by following these steps; first of all, a complete list of all faculties, based on the school and the department they worked in, was obtained. Second, all articles indexed with the affiliation of KMU were retrieved, using both keywords of “Kerman Medical University” and KUM Sciences.” The data were analyzed using Social Network Analysis and Visone software.RESULTS: The results showed an inadequate collaboration within departments; only two of them had collaboration. Co-authorship among departments illustrated a more satisfactory picture: although, it still has more rooms for improvement. Regarding collaboration between the Dentistry School and other schools of the university, the School of Dentistry is in a middle position, though it could have had more potential relationships. The School of Dentistry formed a few relationships with the organizations outside of the university.CONCLUSION: Our study suggests that there are more rooms for improvement in the field of collaboration and co-authoring papers, which could consequently not only lead to a higher rate of publication and visibility but also affect the citation rates for authors.

Keywords


  1. Glanzel W, Schubert A. Analysing scientific networks through co-authorship. In: Moed HF, Glanzel W, Schmoch U, editors. Handbook of quantitative science and technology research. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer; 2005. p. 257-76.
  2. Wardil L, Hauert C. Cooperation and coauthorship in scientific publishing. Phys Rev 2015; 91(1): 012825.
  3. Santin Dirce M, Vanz Samile AS, Stumpf Ida RC. Collaboration networks in the Brazilian scientific output in evolutionary biology: 2000-2012. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciencias 2016; 88(1): 165-78.
  4. Fonseca BPF, Sampaio RB, Fonseca MVA, Zicker F. Co authorship network analysis in health research: method and potential use. Health Res Policy Syst 2016; 14(1): 34.
  5. Glanzel W, de Lange C. A distributional approach to multinationality measures of international scientific collaboration. Scientometrics 2002; 54(1): 75-89.
  6. Cheong F, Corbitt BJ. A social network analysis of the co-authorship network of the pacific Asia conference on information systems from 1993 to 2008. Proceedings of Pacific Asia Conference on Information Systems 2009 (PACIS 2009); 2009 Jul 10-12; Hyderabad, India.
  7. Newman ME. Coauthorship networks and patterns of scientific collaboration. Proc Natl Acad Sci U A 2004; 101(Suppl 1): 5200-5.
  8. Ding Y. Scientific collaboration and endorsement: Network analysis of coauthorship and citation networks. J Informetr 2011; 5(1): 187-203.
  9. Zhang C, Yu Q, Fan Q, Duan Z. Research collaboration in health management research communities. BMC Med Inform Decis Mak 2013; 13: 52.
  10. Abt HA. The frequencies of multinational papers in various sciences. Scientometrics 2007; 72(1): 105-15.
  11. Melin G. Pragmatism and self-organization: Research collaboration on the individual level. Research Policy 2000; 29(1): 31-40.
  12. Larivière V, Gingras Y, Archambault E. Canadian collaboration networks: A comparative analysis of the natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities. Scientometrics 2006; 68(3): 519-33.
  13. Abdollahi M, Kharabaf S. Growth of science in Iran. Res Pharm Sci 2012; 7(5 Suppl): S951.
  14. Soheili F, Cheshme Sohrabi M, Atashpaykar S. Co-authorship network analysis of Iranian medical science researchers: A social network analysis. Caspian Journal of Scientometrics 2015; 2(1): 24-32. [In Persian].
  15. Bagheri S, Mohammadesmaeili S. Analysis of co-authorship and scientific co-operation network in medical engineering from the ISI Database (2002-2011). Rahyaft 2013; 54: 5-18. [In Persian].
  16. Basir Ghafouri H, Vakilian M, Mohammadhassanzadeh H, Farahmand S. Mapping of co-authorship network of Iranian emergency medicine using cluster analysis. J Health Adm 2012; 15(48): 69-80. [In Persian].
  17. Yousefi-Nooraie R, Akbari-Kamrani M, Hanneman RA, Etemadi A. Association between co-authorship network and scientific productivity and impact indicators in academic medical research centers: a case study in Iran. Health Res Policy Syst 2008; 6: 9.
  18. Escalona-Fernandez MI, Pulgarin-Guerrero A, de Oliveira EFT, Gracio MCC. Scientific collaboration network among Brazilian universities: an analysis in dentistry area. Brazilian Journal of Information Science 2012; 6(1): 15-36.
  19. Hanneman RA, Riddle M. Introduction to social network methods. Riverside, CA: University of California; 2005.
  20. Brandes U, Erlebach T. Network analysis: methodological foundations. New York, NY: Springer; 2005.
  21. Said YH, Wegman EJ, Sharabati WK, Rigsby JT. Retracted: Social networks of author-coauthor relationships. Comput Stat Data Anal 2008; 52(4): 2177-84.
  22. Tan HX, Ujum EA, Ratnavelu K. A Scientometrics and social network analysis of Malaysian research in physics. AIP Conference Proceedings 2014; 1588(1): 241.
  23. Vidgen R, Henneberg S, Naude P. What sort of community is the European Conference on Information Systems? A social network analysis 1993-2005. Eur J Inf Syst 2007; 16(1): 5-19.
  24. Velden TA, Lagoze C. Patterns of collaboration in co-authorship networks in chemistry - mesoscopic analysis and interpretation. Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics (ISSI 2009); 2009 Jul 14-17; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  25. Day MY, Shih SP, Chang W. Understanding scientific collaboration with social network. Proceedings of the 17th Cross-Strait Conference on Information and Management (CSCIM 2011); 2011 Jul; Beijing, China.
  26. Soheili F, Osare F, Farajpahlou A. Social network analyses of information science researchers co-authorship. Iranian Journal of Information Processing and Management 2013; 29(1): 191-210. [In Persian].
  27. Zhai L, Yan X, Shibchurn J, Song X. Evolutionary analysis of international collaboration network of Chinese scholars in management research. Scientometrics 2014; 98(2): 1435-54.
  28. Xing H, Yu W, Chen S, Zhang D, Tan R. Influence of social support on health-related quality of life in new-generation migrant workers in Eastern China. Iran J Public Health 2013; 42(8): 806-12.