Network Effects on Rhythms of Scientific Publications

Abstract Studies based on bibliometric records have introduced the idea of ‘rhythmicity’ when it comes to the publication of research articles. However, the main approach of this particular topic was to analyze journal specific data on rates of manuscript and review submissions. This study takes another path, by analyzing aspects of publication rhythmicity based not on individual, attribute data, but taking into account the fact that publication of research results and the efforts leading to a certain manuscript are often collective endeavors. Thus, co-authorship ego networks are interpreted through the theoretical lenses of ‘social time’ (for temporality), and ‘homophily’ and ‘preferential attachment’ (for network characteristics). For this article, the same data analyzed by M.-G. Hâncean and M. Perc in their 2016 article, Homophily in coauthorship networks of East European sociologists, were used. The data was based on Web of Science bibliometric records for three populations of academic sociologists, from Poland, Romania and Slovenia, and their co-authors. The purpose was to see if the publishing rhythm of an author (i.e., ego) is influenced by the publishing rhythm of her co-authors (i.e., alters) and by the structural characteristics of her ego-network. Rhythmicity was measured as the sum of standard deviations from the mean for the number of articles published between 2006 and 2016, resulting in a score which characterizes egos and alters as constant or irregular in their publishing activity. Results suggest that the structural features of the co-authorship networks can give us certain insights for the rhythmicity of publications. Mainly, structural features of network size, density and node betweenness explain more the variation of egos’ constancy or irregularity in (non)publication than the rhythmicity of their co-authors.