FSS-DSOC Luncheon Seminar #3 & Mini-Methods Meeting (M3)

Utilizing articles published by MDPI between 2014-2024 from the Web of Science website, the current study aims to explore the characteristics and dynamic evolution of the authors’ co-authorship network in MDPI’s journals. Focusing on articles published on Sustainability, we analyzed the authorship network between 2013 and 2023, restricted to articles originating from the People’s Republic of China. We limited our analysis to original research articles, excluding editorial materials, corrections, book reviews, and retractions. The research finalized a dataset comprising 22,260 articles with 63,712 unique authors identified.

Comparing the authorship network between 2013 and 2023, there is a dramatic expansion of academic collaborations over the past decade. The structure of 2013 authorship network is quite simple, with a few connected components and each of which contains a limited number of scholars and collaborations. The collaborations are primarily concentrated among a few institutions, such as Chongqing University, Xiamen University, and Beijing Normal University. Progressed from a small number of closely held clusters, the network in 2023 is much large and diverse. The overall structure is quite complex with tens of thousands of nodes and edges, connecting scholars from almost entire country.

The cooperative networks have distinct topological characteristics. The networks’ scale has been quickly rising, with a substantial increase in the number of nodes and edges over years. The distribution of the networks’ degree deviates from the conventional power law, suggesting the absence of a clear “winner-takes-all” scenario that usually happens in a network with strong influence of core researchers. One of possible reasons might relate to the publication strategy of the journal, which prioritizes quantitative expansion and lacks stringent evaluation criteria, which in turn hinders the establishment of substantial academic influence.

Tianji Cai received his PhD degree at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2010. Prior to joining University of Macau, he has worked in University of North Texas for two years. His research interests concentrate on new forms of data and new methods of analysis. Reflecting on his broad intellectual pursuits, his research topics are diverse, ranging from methodological, such as quantitative methods and data mining, to substantive ones, such as gene-environmental interplay and adolescent health behaviors. He has published widely in leading international journals including American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Sociological Methodology, Sociological Methods & Research, Chinese Sociological Review, etc.