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Measuring co-authorship and networking-adjusted scientific impact
1Clinical and Molecular Epidemiology Unit, Department of Hygiene and Epidemiology, University of Ioannina School of Medicine and Biomedical Research Institute, Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas, Ioannina, Greece. jioannid@cc.uoi.gr
Plos One
|July 24, 2008
Summary
New metrics quantify researcher networking intensity, adjusting scientific impact for co-authorship. These tools, I(1) for individuals and I(n) for groups, help evaluate collaborations and promote accountable authorship.
Area of Science:
- Bibliometrics and Scientometrics
- Research Evaluation
- Network Analysis in Science
Background:
- Scientific impact assessment relies heavily on publication and citation metrics.
- Increasing author numbers per paper raise concerns about authorship validity and collaboration intensity.
- Current metrics may not accurately reflect individual or group networking contributions.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce novel metrics, I(1) and I(n), for quantifying networking intensity in scientific collaborations.
- To develop a method for adjusting citation impact based on co-authorship patterns.
- To categorize scientists and institutions based on their networking behavior.
Main Methods:
- Definition of I(1) metric: number of authors appearing in at least I(1) papers for a single scientist.
- Definition of I(n) metric: number of authors appearing in at least I(n) papers for a group or institution.
- Analysis of the power exponent R in the relationship between I(1) and the number of papers (N(p)) to categorize scientists.
Main Results:
- The exponent R categorizes scientists into distinct networking profiles: solitary, nuclear, networked, extensively networked, and collaborators.
- The I(n) metric provides a measure of effective networking size for groups and institutions.
- Empirical data from individual scientists and institutions support the proposed metrics.
Conclusions:
- The proposed I(1) and I(n) metrics offer a quantitative approach to assess scientific networking intensity.
- Adjusting citation impact using these metrics can provide a more nuanced evaluation of research contributions.
- Adoption of these metrics may encourage more accountable co-authorship practices.
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