Smith Thomas Bryan, Vacca Raffaele, Krenz Till, McCarty Christopher
Department of Sociology and Criminology & Law, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Bureau of Economic and Business Research, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
J Informetr. 2021 Feb;15(1). doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2020.101104. Epub 2020 Dec 5.
Over the last century scientific research has become an increasingly collaborative endeavor. Commentators have pointed to different factors which contribute to this trend, including the specialization of science and growing need for diversity of interest and expertise areas in a scientific team. Very few studies, however, have precisely evaluated how the diversity of interest topics between researchers is related to the emergence of collaboration. Existing theoretical arguments suggest a curvilinear relationship between topic similarity and collaboration: too little similarity can complicate communication and agreement, yet too much overlap can increase competition and limit the potential for synergy. We test this idea using data on six years of publications across all disciplines at a large U.S. research university (approximately 14,300 articles, 12,500 collaborations, and 3,400 authors). Employing topic modelling and network statistical models, we analyze the relationship between topic overlap and the likelihood of coauthorship between two researchers while controlling for potential confounders. We find an inverted-U relationship in which the probability of collaboration initially increases with topic similarity, then rapidly declines after peaking at a similarity "sweet spot". Collaboration is most likely at low-to-moderate levels of topic overlap, which are substantially lower than the average self-similarity of scientists or research groups. These findings - which we replicate for different units of analysis (individuals and groups), genders of collaborators, disciplines, and collaboration types (intra- and interdisciplinary) - support the notion that researchers seek collaborators to augment their scientific and technical human capital. We discuss implications for theories of scientific collaboration and research policy.
在过去的一个世纪里，科学研究已日益成为一项合作性的事业。评论家们指出了促成这一趋势的不同因素，包括科学的专业化以及科学团队中对兴趣和专业领域多样性的需求不断增加。然而，很少有研究精确评估研究人员之间兴趣主题的多样性与合作的出现之间的关系。现有的理论观点表明，主题相似性与合作之间存在曲线关系：相似性太少会使沟通和达成共识变得复杂，但重叠过多会增加竞争并限制协同增效的潜力。我们使用美国一所大型研究型大学所有学科六年的出版物数据（约14,300篇文章、12,500次合作和3,400名作者）来检验这一观点。我们采用主题建模和网络统计模型，在控制潜在混杂因素的同时，分析主题重叠与两位研究人员共同署名可能性之间的关系。我们发现了一种倒U形关系，即合作的可能性最初随着主题相似性的增加而增加，然后在相似性达到“最佳点”后迅速下降。合作最有可能出现在主题重叠程度较低到中等的水平，这大大低于科学家或研究团队的平均自我相似性。我们针对不同的分析单位（个人和团队）、合作人员的性别、学科以及合作类型（学科内和跨学科）重复了这些发现，这些发现支持了研究人员寻求合作者以增强其科学和技术人力资本的观点。我们讨论了这些发现对科学合作理论和研究政策的启示。
