Collaborative Research Network and Scientific Productivity: The Case of Korean Statisticians and Computer Scientists

This paper focuses on the relationship between the characteristics of network and the productivity of scientists, which is rarely examined in previous studies. Utilizing a unique dataset from the Korean Citation Index (KCI), we examine the overall characteristics of the research network (e.g. distribution of nodes, density and mean distance), and analyze whether the network centrality is related to the scientific productivity. According to the results, firstly we have found that the collaborative research network of the Korean academics in the field of statistics and computer science is a scale-free network. Secondly, these research networks show a disciplinary difference. The network of statisticians is denser than that of computer scientists. In addition, computer scientists are located in a fragmented network compared to statisticians. Thirdly, with regard to the relationship between the researchers' network position and scientific productivity, a significant relation and their disciplinary difference have been observed. In particular, the degree centrality is the strongest predictor for the scientists' productivity. Based on these findings, some policy implications are put forward.