Abstract

Research institutions provide the infrastructure for scientific discovery, yet their role in the production of knowledge is not well characterized. To address this gap, we analyze interactions of researchers within and between institutions from millions of scientific papers. Our analysis reveals that collaborations densify as each institution grows, but at different rates (heterogeneous densification). We also find that the number of institutions scales with the number of researchers as a power law (Heaps’ law) and institution sizes approximate Zipf’s law. These patterns can be reproduced by a simple model in which researchers are preferentially hired by large institutions, while new institutions complimentarily generate more new institutions. Finally, new researchers form triadic closures with collaborators. This model reveals an economy of scale in research: larger institutions grow faster and amplify collaborations. Our work …

Metadata

publication

Communications Physics 4 (1), 189, 2021

year

2021

publication date

2021/9/2

authors

Keith A Burghardt, Zihao He, Allon G Percus, Kristina Lerman

link

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-021-00693-2

resource_link

https://www.nature.com/articles/s42005-021-00693-2

journal

Communications Physics

volume

4

issue

1

pages

189

publisher

Nature Publishing Group UK