Abstract:
Understanding the underlying characteristics of academic co-authorship networks using complex network analysis has become an active area of research, driven by the popularisation of big data and the digital age. Complex network analysis allows for the recognition of patterns beyond what can be obtained from bibliometrics. A co-authorship network is dynamic, with the authors and communities constantly changing through time. However, examining a co-authorship network dynamically has only recently become popular, with little literature on the effects of affiliation mobility on an author's career. This study categorises academics at New Zealand research institutions based on their affiliation movements throughout their career. Analysis of these academics is carried out and the effects they have on a particular affiliation network at both the global and local community level were examined. A wide range of metrics, such as centrality, were measured throughout an author's career and differences in the trends between author categories were identified. The movements of authors within the affiliation network were also examined, using a random walk model governed by the community structure of the dynamic network. The methodology for dynamic community detection and analysis was applied on two affiliation networks: The New Zealand Food Safety Science and Research Centre (NZFSSRC), and the University of Auckland (UOA). The NZFSSRC network, which represents a virtual affiliation, was used to test the dynamic community detection and global community analysis techniques. Results from this analysis were compared to those from the UOA network, which represents a physical affiliation. These showed substantial differences in the underlying structures of identified communities. The UOA network also showed some major structural changes in the network which may be attributed to the implementation of the performance-based research fund. These features were left for future research. Results from the categorised authors showed substantial differences in both global centrality measures, and in their movement within an affiliation's communities, throughout their career. This suggests that the mobility of academics plays a role in their behaviour, which can be attributed to the effect they have on dynamic co-authorship community structure.