Trend analysis of co-authorship network in Library Hi Tech
| Pages | 43-56 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/LHT-11-2017-0241 |
| Published date | 18 March 2019 |
| Date | 18 March 2019 |
| Author | Fei-Fei Cheng,Yu-Wen Huang,Der-Chian Tsaih,Chin-Shan Wu |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Librarianship/library management,Library technology,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information user studies,Metadata,Information & knowledge management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
Trend analysis of co-authorship
network in Library Hi Tech
Fei-Fei Cheng
Institute of Technology Management,
National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, Taiwan
Yu-Wen Huang
Department of Information Management,
National Chung Cheng University, Chiayi, Taiwan
Der-Chian Tsaih
Department of Electronic Commerce Management,
Nanhua University, Chiayi, Taiwan, and
Chin-Shan Wu
Tunghai University, Taichung, Taiwan
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of collaboration among researchers in
Library Hi Tech based on the co-authorship network analysis.
Design/methodology/approach –The Library Hi Tech publications were retrieved from Web of Science
database between 2006 and 2017. Social network analysis based on co-authorship was analyzed by using
BibExcel software and a visual knowledge map was generated by Pajek. Three important social capital
indicators: degree centrality, closeness centrality and betweenness centrality were calculated to indicate the
co-authorship. Cohesive subgroup analysis which includes components and k-core was then applied to show
the connectivity of co-authorship network of Library Hi Tech.
Findings –The results indicated that around 42 percent of the articles were written by single author, while
an increasing trend of multi-authored articles suggesting the collaboration among researchers in librarian
research field becomes popular. Furthermore, the social network analysis identified authorship network with
three core authors –Markey, K., Fourie, I. and Li, X. Finally, six core subgroups each included six or seven
tightly connected researchers were also identified.
Originality/value –This study contributed to the existing literature by revealing the co-authorship network
in librarian research field. Key researchers in the major subgroup were identified. This is one of the limited
studies that describe the collaboration network among authors from different perspectives showing a more
comprehensive co-authorship network.
Keywords Co-authorship, Social network analysis, Analysis, Library Hi Tech, BibExcel, Pajek
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Researchers from different fields are facing a rapidly changed environment because of the
development of scientific techniques, tools and methods. Thus, the collaboration among
researchers with different specialties has increased (Cronin et al., 2003, 2004) in order to improve
the scientific research quality, efficiency and visibility (Beaver, 2001). Co-authorship is one of the
most important ways to demonstrate that the social network exists among researchers in one
specific research field and is a popular issue in bibliometrics research, which includes author
co-citation, co-authorship and co-word analysis (Leydesdorff and Vaughan, 2006; Otte and
Rousseau, 2002; Owen-Smith et al., 2002). The co-authorship analysis will be able to illustrate the
evolution of collaboration and social networks among researchers. Furthermore, key actors
(either individuals or groups) and relationships among these actors will be identified ( Fatt et al.,
2010; Lu et al., 2010; Perianes-Rodríguez et al.,2010;Saidet al., 2011).
A network is made up of relational ties that are used to allocate resources in a social
structure. Social network is defined as social structure which is made up of a set of social
Library Hi Tech
Vol. 37 No. 1, 2019
pp. 43-56
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0737-8831
DOI 10.1108/LHT-11-2017-0241
Received 26 November 2017
Revised 20 December 2017
27 April 2018
Accepted 7 June 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0737-8831.htm
43
Co-authorship
network in
Library Hi Tech
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