Tie strength dynamics over temporal co-authorship social networks

Abstract

In co-authorship social networks, nodes are authors linked by co-authorship interactions. As time is a relevant aspect of such interactions, concepts and metrics designed to static networks have to be adapted to temporal networks. Tie strength is one of those concepts. Here, we verify if current tie strength definitions are valid for temporal networks by analyzing the strength of ties dynamism over temporal co-authorship networks. Surprisingly, our results show that most ties, even the strong ones, tend to perish over time. Thus, most co-authorships are symbiotic without positive concerns. Also, real co-authorship social networks from different research areas have more weak and random ties than strong and bridge ties.