The Global Structure of International Scientific Collaborations

摘要

While there is a consensus that there is a core-periphery structure in the global scientific enterprise, there have not been many methodologies developed for identifying this structure. This paper develops a methodology by looking at the differences in the power-law structure of article outputs and degree distributions of countries and applies the method to five different scientific fields: astronomy & astrophysics, energy & fuels, nanotechnology & nanosciences, nutrition, and oceanography. The analysis highlights differences in the structures of these fields and their impact on citation behaviour.