Projects / Programmes
Cooperation networks in Slovene science
| Code |
Science |
Field |
Subfield |
| 5.03.00 |
Social sciences |
Sociology |
|
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| S210 |
Social sciences |
Sociology |
| Code |
Science |
Field |
| 5.04 |
Social Sciences |
Sociology |
scientific collaboration, research policy, scientific productivity, scientific co-autorship network, network evolution, bibliometrics, R&D indicators, COBISS
Researchers (14)
Organisations (3)
Abstract
SCIENTIFIC BACKGROUND: Contemporary science is characterized by two major shifts towards specialization and research collaboration. The impacts of specialization are centrifugal, working towards greater social and cognitive distances between scientists. Research collaboration, on the other hand, contributes to smaller distances by involving scientists into inter- or trans-disciplinary networks. Scientific collaboration represents a crucial mechanism of integration and growth of scientific knowledge.
PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION: Scientific collaboration has received much recent research attention. Our research group has done pioneering work in Slovenia regarding collaboration. The results of previous studies show that the Slovenian science system is very specific in certain respects: first, the Slovenian scientific community is small and organized in closed, clique-like network structures; second, the degree of specialization is high, raising a question of the efficacious mechanisms for the integration of scientific knowledge; and third, Slovenian research policy has been actively involved in the promotion of scientific collaboration since 2000.
THE OBJECTIVES: Our main goal is to study the processes of scientific development in Slovenia within the framework of the double shift towards specialization and integration of knowledge. Accordingly, our research will focus on the following three research themes:
The analysis of disciplinary networks to understand: i) temporal co-authorship publication patterns and their changes through time; ii) the consequences of research networks for scientific productivity; and iii) the potential for the emergence of new scientific “niches” in the disciplinary structure of the science.
The analysis of collaborative styles between specialists in selected scientific disciplines/sub-disciplines to help us understand different types of “cognitive migrations” in the contemporary science.
The analysis of institutional and individual factors which, in the context of high research specialization, promote the formation of research networks crossing disciplinary and institutional boundaries.
METHODS AND ANALYSES: We propose studying Slovenian collaboration networks from 1986 to 2011. Collaboration is operationalised in terms of co-authorship networks. We will analyze the complete network which includes researchers from all scientific fields. The analysis of »cognitive migrations« is based on the content analysis of publications co-authored by authors from the same or different disciplines, while the analysis of determinants of collaboration requires a survey among active researchers. In the last two research topics, the data will be collected for researchers from selected disciplines only including: economy (social sciences), history (arts), materials (technical sciences), neurology (medical sciences), chemistry (natural sciences) and plant production and processing (biotechnology).
RELEVANCE AND IMPACT: Using an innovative research design we will contribute to our understanding of the knowledge development in the modern science system. The results of the projects can also be applied and used in the formulation of the Slovenian science policy given its current aim to increase collaboration within and across disciplines.
PROJECT MANAGEMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION: The project will be conducted by an inter-disciplinary group of scholars with high international reputations. Their fields or expertise include sociology of science, statistics, social network analysis and theory of social capital. The project is divided into three parts, each with clear objectives and methodology. Research work will be done by the same research group as in the past implying a guarantee that the proposed project will be carried out as agreed and within the set time frame.
Significance for science
Our research contributes to the development of concepts and methodologies for the study of researcher collaborations in a small scientific community. The analyses of co-authorship networks deepen our understanding of the general developmental patterns in science (e.g., the trends of scientific collaboration among Slovenian scientists over the last two decades), but can also serve as support to the expert decision-making in Slovenian R&D policy (e.g., the influence of co-authorship networks on scientific productivity and scientific excellence). The results of our research are applicable to both analytical levels. In the context of developing and applying complex concepts, methods and techniques both in bibliometrics and social network analysis, we have made important contributions to the development of the theory and methodology of scientific social networks and the sociology of science. Also based on the collaboration of researchers from different disciplinary fields (social science methodology, sociology of science, social network analysis), the results of our research in the scope of the project have contributed to new knowledge of the social and epistemological factors relevant in the formation of different types of scientific collaboration. Our analyses have shown that internalization is extremely important for a small scientific community, such as the community of Slovenian researchers. In this context, the establishment of a suitable system of scientific evaluation, which would successfully encourage all the (disciplinary, sectoral) segments of Slovenian science towards its greater internationalization, is very important. The requirements of individual institutional settings to reduce the role of international collaboration, especially in terms of highlighting the national specificities of individual scientific disciplines, and highlighting their importance for the local environment, causes rather more harm than benefit for the development of Slovenian Science. In the context of our qualitative and quantitative analyses (in-depth interviews, surveys on selected groups of researchers, etc.), we have also come to the conclusion that the system of peer control in the Slovenian community, as an example of a small scientific community where the number of active scientists in a specific field can sometimes be counted on the fingers of one hand, still demonstrates serious shortcomings. We therefore find that any efforts that attempt to promote and establish "national" specificities of individual disciplines, and thus also their isolation in relation to the international scientific community, also works to the detriment of the international recognition of Slovenia as a culturally specific entity, that is, precisely of that on which international non-comparability is supposed to be based. With our analyses of co-authorship networks we have contributed to a broader understanding of the workings of the system of ex ante evaluation in science, which needs to find an appropriate balance between qualitative expert and quantitative bibliometric evaluations of the results of the work of scientists from all disciplinary areas of science.
Significance for the country
Our research, which has dealt with scientific collaboration in a broader and with co-authorship publications in a narrower sense of the word, relates to the extremely important question of organizing the research and development policy and its strategy. The results of our theoretical and empirical research have revealed different types of scientific social networks expressed through co-authorship publications, which appear throughout the entire spectrum of scientific disciplines in Slovenia. These scientific networks have a major impact on the "profile" of the scientific community in a small country such as Slovenia, that is, on scientific productivity, scientific excellence, etc. It is expected that the research and development policy will promote the development of such a scientific evaluation system that will guide researchers towards scientific excellence, international cooperation, to fulfilling societal and economic goals. The circumstances, which are linked to the use of a variety of instruments for scientific evaluation, are complex, especially in small scientific communities (such as in Slovenia). Doubts related to the objectivity, transparency, etc., are constantly surfacing among all the actors that are involved in such evaluation processes. From this perspective, it is of crucial importance that the design of an appropriate research and development policy is based, inter alia, on reliable and valid elucidations and measurements of co-authorship networks in the various segments of science (within scientific disciplines, between Slovenian and foreign scientists, between scientists from the academic sphere and scientists from the business-enterprise sector, etc.). Reliable and valid elucidations and measurements of co-authorship networks are particularly important in the light of today's general trends, which we can trace in the area of research and development evaluation. We can expect that soon, mainly due to the very large increase in the number of co-authorships in one article published in a scientific journal (including the social sciences and humanities), new demands for the introduction of completely new measuring instruments in the process of ex ante scientific evaluations will be made. Therefore, all the previously conducted analyses of co-authorship networks can serve as a suitable expert basis for making decisions regarding the introduction of more advanced indicators for the measurement of scientific excellence and scientific productivity. After all, the analysis of co-authorship networks already now represents an extremely relevant indirect indicator for measuring excellence in science. Also in the case of Slovenia, it has become evident that co-authorships contribute to an increase of publications in the most prestigious international scientific journals, to a very large increase in the number of citations of scientific works, etc. In the context of our longitudinal analyses of co-authorship networks, we have fully demonstrated the connection between scientific networks and scientific excellence.
Most important scientific results
Annual report
2013,
2014,
2015,
final report
Most important socioeconomically and culturally relevant results
Annual report
2013,
2014,
2015,
final report
