Publication Patterns and Collaborative Work at NSECs

Publication Patterns and Collaborative Work at NSECs Juan D. Rogers Jan Youtie Luciano Kay School of Public Policy Georgia Tech Project: Assessment of 15 Nanotechnology Science and Engineering Centers’ (NSECs): Outcomes and Impacts: Their Contribution to NNI Objectives and Goals, NSF 0955089.

Objectives

Publication output and impact of the NSECs Collaboration with industry Co-authorship patterns change over time Geographical spread or concentration of NSEC research collaboration Evolution of areas of research as reflected in keyword changes Multidisciplinary footprint of the centers The case for centers 12/7/2010

NSEC PI Meeting, Washington DC

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Data and methods

Acquisition of 85 center annual reports from all 15 NSEC centers Extraction and clean up (duplicate removal) of publication lists Extraction of NSEC articles from Web of Science (n=3,500) Look up and extraction of articles citing NSEC articles (n=75,000) Clean up and classification of collaborating organizations Clean up, look up, identification, and matching of NSEC authors in author listings Analyses of different type, multiple tools: ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦ ◦

Growth, shares, and overall trends (tabular) Networks and collaborations (Gephi) Geographical spread, GIS (ArcGIS) Keywords and topics (VantagePoint) Multidisciplinarity and science maps (Pajek)

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Publications

NSEC publication activity grows in three waves 800

2001-04

2005-06 2007-08

25,000 20,000

600 500

15,000

400 10,000

300 200

Citing articles

NSEC Publications

700

NSEC publications (all centers) Citing articles

5,000

100 -

NSEC publications (all centers) ▪ Annual change Citing articles ▪ Annual change

-

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009-10*

2001-10*

66

133 102% 391 715%

221 66% 1,164 198%

262 19% 2,619 125%

499 90% 4,595 75%

515 3% 7,415 61%

715 39% 10,469 41%

737 3% 15,243 46%

361 -51% 19,149 26%

3,870 34% 94,484 12%

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Notes: *Publication data not reported by all NSEC centers; last column reports average annual change for rows with change data. Source: ISI-WoS publication data based on NSEC annual reports by center. 12/7/2010


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Industry collaborations

One out of 10 NSEC publications has an industry coco-author 2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

200910*

NSEC centers with publications

3

6

6

13

13

15

15

15

13

NSEC publications (all centers)

66

133

221

262

499

515

715

737

NSEC pubs. co-auth. with industry

12

13

16

17

35

52

76

65

34

360

8%

23%

6%

106%

49%

46%

-14%

-48%

22%

18%

10%

7%

6%

7%

10%

11%

9%

9%

10%

11

13

9

16

31

29

50

43

22

146

18%

-31%

78%

94%

-6%

72%

-14%

-49%

20%

▪ Annual change ▪ Share industry co-auth / all pubs. Unique co-author firms ▪ Annual change

200110*

15

361 3,509

Total unique firms co-authoring articles with NSEC (2001-2010): 146 Total unique firms maintaining other types of collaborations with NSEC (as of 2010): 275** Notes: * Publication data not reported by all NSEC centers; last column reports average annual change for rows with change data. **The type of collaborations are not specified by centers (only number of industry partners was provided). Source: ISI-WoS publication data based on NSEC annual reports by center and lists of industry partners provided by NSEC centers.

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Comparative Impact of NSEC Papers (Citations Cohort 2001) 2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

N_Mean 0.88

6.30

14.44

23.64

35.88

48.48

61.11

75.61

90.17

0

2

4

6

9.5

11

12.5

14.5

17.5

12

52

148

297

528

776

1062

1409

1760

0.26

2.11

5.13

8.18

11.62

14.78

17.87

21.11

24.04

0

1

2

4

5

6

8

9

10

39

163

376

747

1268

1803

2286

2902

3484

N_Med N_Max C_Mean C_Medi C_Max

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Comparative Impact of NSEC Papers (Citations Cohort 2002) 2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

N_Mean 1.20

9.06

21.32

36.92

51.75

67.13

85.15

101.80

0

3

8.5

16

20.5

25.5

30.5

36.5

19

88

196

400

585

807

1063

1330

0.28

2.32

5.30

8.83

12.10

15.36

18.79

21.92

0

1

2

4

6

7

8

9

50

153

340

661

1053

1499

2042

2587

N_Med N_Max C_Mean C_Med C_Max

NSEC papers appear to have higher impact measured by citations: median and mean citations grow faster than the cohort with window length 12/7/2010


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Rank in Cohort of Top 20 NSEC Papers 1 2001 2002

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

5

29

98

167

179

223

313

411

465

629

6

10

17

20

23

56

69

124

127

148

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

2001 834

1345

1383

2077

2992

3202

3203

3283

3284

3755

175

192

228

279

322

382

430

513

559

566

2002

NSEC papers rank highly in their cohort of Nano papers. Total Cohort 2001: 30462 papers. NSEC Cohort 2001: 66 papers Total Cohort 2002: 34971 papers. NSEC Cohort 2002: 128 papers 12/7/2010


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The NSEC network involves diverse types of companies and relationships

Co-authorships and collaborations (2001-2010) 421 unique companies 360 co-authored publications Notes: Node size represents number of publications in the period 2001-2010. Edge size represents number of co-authorships. Red nodes represent 15 NSECs. Yellow nodes represent industry partners. Green lines represent co-authorships. Blue lines represent other types of collaborations. Labels are shown only for NSEC centers (anonymized) and top-25 industry partners according to number of co-authored publications. Source: Analysis based on list of industry partners provided by NSEC centers as of 2010 and publications in ISI-WoS database for period 2001-2010.

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Separating coco-authorship network from general links shows diversity of interactions Co-authorships (2001-2010)

Other collaborations (2001-2010)

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Main industry coco-authors are a few large companies

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Some companies use the NSECs as a network Number of companies

300 250

275 231

200 Companies use multiple NSEC centers

150 111

146 In co-authorships

100 50 0

In other collabs.

37 18

12

7

3

0

2

0 421 unique companies (2001-2010) 146 have co-authored with NSEC centers 275 maintained other collaborations

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Co-authorships

NSEC coco-authorship networks grow and become more widespread Co-authorships 2001-2006

Co-authorships 2007-2010

Notes: Nodes represent authors. Node size represents number of publications for the period. Node colors represent 15 NSEC centers. Line colors are those of the centers that maintain each co-authorship as found in publication databases. Source: ISI-WoS publication data based on NSEC annual reports by center. 12/7/2010


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Co-authorships

Multiple productive and collaborative authors

NSEC collaboration networks present diverse patterns of coauthorship (2001-2010)

Central and well connected authors

Highly collaborative projects

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Collaboration and places

Wide geographic spread of NSEC research with concentration in specific locations/regions

Note: Number of NSEC publications from 2001-2010 = 3509; number of citing publications = 75335. Citing publications, 2001-2010 exclude all NSEC publications. 12/7/2010


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Collaboration and places

Co Co--authoring extends beyond the NSECs to nearly all US states

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Research topics

Clusters of top keywords (21 cluster solution reported)

More specialized terms

More linked terms

Research topics

Top 20 Terms Across 15 NSECs (relative position of 30 most common, 20012001-2006 v. 200720072010)

FOUNDATIONAL •FABRICS •THIN-FILM •SELF-ASSEMBLED MONOLAYER •SPECTROSCOPY •CARBON NANOTUBE

STABLE •NANOCRYSTAL •OPTICAL PROPERTY •MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS

GROWTH •FIELD-EFFECT TRANSISTOR •LITHOGRAPHY •GOLD NANOPARTICLE •QUANTUM DOT •SENSOR •WALL CARBON NANOTUBE •IN-VITRO •SEMICONDUCTOR •MOLECULAR-DYNAMICS SIMULATION •BIOSENSOR •IN-VIVO •THIN-FILM-TRANSISTOR •GRAPHITE

MATURE •DNA •SCATTERERS •TRANSISTOR •DIP PEN NANOLITHOGRAPHY •SILVER NANOPARTICLE •AQUEOUS-SOLUTION •ATOMIC FORCE MICROSCOPY •WAVE-GUIDE •HETEROSTRUCTURE

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Agriculture Environ Sci Geosciences Ecology

Chemistry

Clinical Med Matls Sci

Engineering Neurosciences General Med Computer Sci.

Map of Science: Subject Categories within all Nano (2009)

Physics

Source: Rafols, I. and Meyer, M. (2009) Diversity and Network Coherence as indicators of interdisciplinarity: case studies in bionanoscience. /Scientometrics/, 81(2), in print; Leydesdorff, L. and Rafols, I. (2009) A Global Map of Science Based on the ISI Subject Categories. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(2), 348-362.

Multidisciplinarity

NSEC research is multidisciplinary with focus areas in materials science, chemistry and biomedical sciences Global Map of Science, 2006 175 SCI Subject Categories

Ecology Agriculture Geosciences

Infectious Diseases Biomed Sci

Environ Sci

Clinical Med Chemistry

Matls Sci

Engineering

Neurosciences

Computer Sci.

Physics

General Med

Map source: Rafols, I., Meyer, M. (2009) Diversity and Network Coherence as indicators of interdisciplinarity: case studies in bionanoscience. Scientometrics, 81(2), in print; Leydesdorff, L., Rafols, I. (2009) A Global Map of Science Based on the ISI Subject Categories. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 60(2), 348-362.

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Multidisciplinarity

A range of disciplines beyond focal areas cite NSEC works Global Map of Science, 2006 175 SCI Subject Categories

Ecology Agricultur e Geoscience s

Infectious Diseases Biomed Sci

Environ Sci

Clinical Med Chemistry

Matls Sci Engineerin g

Neurosciences

Computer Sci.

Physics

General Med

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Conclusions

Implications for Center Policy

NSEC publication growth rate indicates rapid take-off by new centers. Co-authorship with industry indicates deep integration of collaborative activities. A core industry sector relies on NSECs as a network of centers. NSEC mechanism allows for greater involvement of authors over time in diverse locations. NSEC research involves some foundational as well as some emerging (and some maturing) topical areas. NSECs work in multiple disciplines and their citation influence involves many more disciplines (especially in Biotechnology related fields). 12/7/2010


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The Case for Centers

Reporting by PIs on crucial role of centers: ◦ Unique incentive to go deeply across disciplinary boundaries Significantly reduced cross-disciplinary transaction costs

◦ Unique research experience for graduate students Rich and diverse research infrastructure enables more risk taking Exposure to greater number of high quality scientific contacts Exposure to unique industry contacts

◦ Accelerator of promising young researcher development Center as recruiting tool of top talent Diverse mentoring opportunities for rapid career development

◦ Unique infrastructure possibilities Leverage of resources for shared new facilities Design of new unique instruments and experimental arrangements

September 2010

NSEC Outcomes Assessment: Preliminary Findings

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Some Program Challenges

Some scientific contributions are difficult to explain to the lay public ◦ Important for long term support of the enterprise

The variety of time constants for developing commercial potential should be factored into the center program The special benefits for development of faculty and graduate students should be scaled up to reach the rest of the university community The pre- and extra- university education efforts are dependent on the center program and are difficult to institutionalize without it.

◦ Their sustainability should be a program concern

Similar sustainability issue is raised by specialized infrastructure that may go to waste if centers are discontinued Societal impacts are not well integrated and seem distant as an interdisciplinary challenge

September 2010

NSEC Outcomes Assessment: Preliminary Findings

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