Skip to main content
Log in

Visibility of collaboration on the Web

  • Published:
Scientometrics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The emerging influence of new information and communication technologies (ICT) on collaboration in science and technology has to be considered. In particular, the question of the extent to which collaboration in science and in technology is visible on the Web needs examining. Thus the purpose of this study is to examine whether broadly similar results would occur if solely Web data was used rather than all available bibliometric co-authorship data. For this purpose a new approach of Web visibility indicators of collaboration is examined. The ensemble of COLLNET members is used to compare co-authorship patterns in traditional bibliometric databases and the network visible on the Web. One of the general empirical results is a high percentage (78%) of all bibliographic multi- authored publications become visible through search of engines in the Web. One of the special studies has shown Web visibility of collaboration is dependent on the type of bibliographic multi-authored papers. The social network analysis (SNA) is applied to comparisons between bibliographic and Web collaboration networks. Structure formation processes in bibliographic and Web networks are studied. The research question posed is to which extent collaboration structures visible in the Web change their shape in the same way as bibliographic collaboration networks over time. A number of special types of changes in bibliographic and Web structures are explained.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Balaban, A. T., Klein, D. J. (2002), Co-authorship, rational Erdös numbers, and resistance distances in graphs, Scientometrics, 55: 59–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Basu, A., Aggarwal, R. (2001), International collaboration in science in India and its impact on international performance, Scientometrics, 52: 379–394.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Batagelj, V., Ferligoj, A., Doreian, P. (1992), Direct and indirect methods for structural equivalence, Social Networks, 14: 63–90.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beaver, D. DeB., Rosen, R. (1978), Studies in scientific collaboration. Part III. Professionalization and the natural history of modern scientific co-authorship. Scientometrics, 3: 231–245.

    Google Scholar 

  • Borgman, C. L., Furner, J. (2002), Scholarly communication and bibliometrics. In: B. Cronin (Ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 36, Medford, NJ: Information Today,pp. 3–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braun, T., GlÄnzel, W., Schubert, A. (2001), Publication and cooperation patterns of the authors of neuroscience journals. Scientometrics, 51: 499–510.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, M., Wilson, C. S. (2002), Elite researchers in ophthalmology: Aspects of publishing strategies, collaboration and multi-disciplinarity. Scientometrics, 52: 395–410.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • GlÄnzel, W. (2002), Coauthorship patterns and trends in the sciences (1980-1998): A bibliometric study with implications for database indexing and search strategies. Library Trends, 50: 461–473.

    Google Scholar 

  • Genest, C., Thibault, C. (2001), Investigating the concentration within a research community using joint publications and co-authorship via intermediaries. Scientometrics, 51: 429–440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Havemann, F. (2001), Collaboration behaviour of Berlin life science researchers in the last two decades of the twentieth century as reflected in the Science Citation Index, Scientometrics, 52: 435–444.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Herring, S. C. (2002), Computer-mediated communication on the Internet. In: Cronin, B. (Ed.), Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, Vol. 36, Medford, NJ: Information Today Inc., pp. 109–168.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ingwersen, P. (1998), The calculation of Web Impact Factors. Journal of Documentation, 54 (2): 236–243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kling, R., Mckim, G. (2000), Not just a matter of time: field differences in the shaping of electronic media in supporting scientific communication. Journal of the American Society for Information Science, 51 (14): 1306–1320.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kretschmer, H., Liang, L., Kundra, R. (2001), Foundation of a global interdisciplinary research network (COLLNET) with Berlin as the virtual center, Scientometrics, 52: 531–538.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kretschmer, H., Thelwall, M. (2003), The development of information professionals: The European perspective-The way from librametry to webometrics. In: A. Amudhavalli (Ed.), Proceedings of the MALA Platinum Jubilee Celebrations, Seminar on Information Professionals for the Digital Era, Madras, India, January 29-30, 2003, EFEX: Chennai, pp. 13–25.

  • Kretschmer, H. (2003), Author productivity and Erdős distances in co-authorship and in Web networks. In: Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Scientometrics and Informetrics, Beijing, August 25-28, 2003 (forthcoming).

  • Kundra, R., Tomov, D. (2001), Collaboration patterns in Indian and Bulgarian epidemiology of neoplasms in Medline for 1966-1999.

  • Newman, M. (2001), The structure of scientific collaboration networks. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA, 98: 404–409.

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Otte, E., Rousseau, R. (2002), Social network analysis: a powerful strategy, also for the information sciences. Journal of Information Science, 28: 443–455.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Price, D. J. De Solla (1963), Little Science, Big Science, New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schubert, A. (2002), The Web of Scientometrics. A statistical overview of the first 50 volumes of the journal. Scientometrics, 53: 3–20.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Terveen, L. G., Hill, W. C. (1998), Evaluating Emergent Collaboration on the Web, In: Proceedings of CSCW 1998 Seattle WA, ACM Press, pp. 355–362.

  • Thelwall, M. (2003), What is the link doing here? Beginning a fine-grained process of identifying reasons for academic hyperlink creation. Information Research, 8.

  • Vaughan, L., Shaw, D. (2003), Bibliographic and Web citations: What is the difference? Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 54 (14): 1313–1322.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wagner-DÖbler, R. (2001), Continuity and discontinuity of collaboration behaviour since 1800-from a bibliometric point of view, Scientometrics, 52: 503–518.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wasserman, S., Faust, K. (1994), Social Network Analysis. Methods and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wilkinson, D., Harries, G., Thelwall, M., Price, L. (2003), Motivation for academic web site interlinking: evidence for the web as a novel source of information on informal scholarly communication. Journal of Information Science, 29: 59–66.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kretschmer, H., Aguillo, I.F. Visibility of collaboration on the Web. Scientometrics 61, 405–426 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SCIE.0000045118.68430.fd

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:SCIE.0000045118.68430.fd

Keywords

Navigation