The analysis of bibliometric networks, such as co-authorship, bibliographic coupling, and co-citation networks, has received a considerable amount of attention. Much less attention has been paid to the construction of these networks. We point out that different approaches can be taken to construct a bibliometric network. Normally the full counting approach is used, but we propose an alternative fractional counting approach. The basic idea of the fractional counting approach is that each action, such as co-authoring or citing a publication, should have equal weight, regardless of for instance the number of authors, citations, or references of a publication. We present two empirical analyses in which the full and fractional counting approaches yield very different results. These analyses deal with co-authorship networks of universities and bibliographic coupling networks of journals. Based on theoretical considerations and on the empirical analyses, we conclude that for many purposes the fractional counting approach is preferable over the full counting one.

There is a widespread perception that pharmaceutical R&D is facing a productivity crisis characterised by stagnation in the numbers of new drug approvals in the face of increasing R&D costs. This study explores pharmaceutical R&D dynamics by examining the publication activities of all R&D laboratories of the major European and US pharmaceutical firms during the period 1995-2009. The empirical findings present an industry in transformation. In the first place, we observe a decline of the total number of publications by large firms. Second, we show a relative increase of their external collaborations suggesting a tendency to outsource, and a diversification of the disciplinary base, in particular towards computation, health services and more clinical approaches. Also evident is a more pronounced decline in publications by both R&D laboratories located in Europe and by firms with European headquarters. Finally, while publications by Big Pharma in emerging economies sharply increase, they remain extremely low compared with those in developed countries. In summary, the trend in this transformation is one of a gradual decrease in internal research efforts and increasing reliance on external research. These empirical insights support the view that large pharmaceutical firms are increasingly becoming 'network integrators' rather than the prime locus of drug discovery.

The present paper proposes a method for detecting, identifying and visualizing research groups. The data used refer to nine Carlos III University of Madrid departments, while the findings for the Communication Technologies Department illustrate the method. Structural analysis was used to generate co-authorship networks. Research groups were identified on the basis of factorial analysis of the raw data matrix and similarities in the choice of co-authors. The resulting networks distinguished the researchers participating in the intra-departmental network from those not involved and identified the existing research groups. Fields of research were characterized by the Journal of Citation Report subject category assigned to the bibliographic references cited in the papers written by the authorfactors. The results, i.e., the graphic displays of the structures of the socio-centric and coauthorship networks and the strategies underlying collaboration among researchers, were later discussed with the members of the departments analyzed. The paper constitutes a starting point for understanding and characterizing networking within research institutions.

There is a widespread perception that pharmaceutical R&D is facing a productivity crisis characterised by stagnation in the numbers of new drug approvals in the face of increasing R&D costs. This study explores pharmaceutical R&D dynamics by examining the publication activities of all R&D laboratories of the major European and US pharmaceutical firms during the period 1995-2009. The empirical findings present an industry in transformation. In the first place, we observe a decline of the total number of publications by large firms. Second, we show a relative increase of their external collaborations suggesting a tendency to outsource, and a diversification of the disciplinary base, in particular towards computation, health services and more clinical approaches. Also evident is a more pronounced decline in publications by both R&D laboratories located in Europe and by firms with European headquarters. Finally, while publications by Big Pharma in emerging economies sharply increase, they remain extremely low compared with those in developed countries. In summary, the trend in this transformation is one of a gradual decrease in internal research efforts and increasing reliance on external research. These empirical insights support the view that large pharmaceutical firms are increasingly becoming 'networks integrators' rather than the prime locus of drug discovery.Keywords: Pharmaceuticals, bibliometrics, outsourcing, Europe, globalisation, research network, innovation, collaboration Highlights  We analyse the publications by R&D laboratories of the top 15 pharmaceutical firms.  We observe a slow decline in their total number of publications and field share.  A more pronounced decline in publications by R&D laboratories located in Europe.  There is more external collaboration and research in non-traditional disciplines.  The results suggest that Big Pharma firms are increasingly network integrators.

Using a large dataset, indexed by Thomson Reuters, consisting of 4.4 million articles published in 1998-2003 with a five-year citation window for each year, this paper studies country citation distributions in a partition of the world into 36 countries and two geographical areas in the all-sciences case and eight broad scientific fields. The key findings are the following two. Firstly, the shape of country citation distributions is highly skewed and very similar to each other across all fields. Secondly, differences in country citation distributions appear to have a strong scale factor component. The implication is that, in spite of the skewness of citation distributions, international comparisons of citation impact in terms of country mean citations capture well such scale factors. The empirical scenario described in the paper helps understanding why, in each field and the all-sciences case, the country rankings according to (i) mean citations and (ii) the percentage of articles in each country belonging to the set formed by the 10% of the more highly cited papers are so similar to each other.

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to visualize the inter-university and international collaboration networks generated by Spanish universities based on the co-authorship of scientific articles. Design/methodology/approach -The approach takes the form of formulation based on a bibliometric analysis of Spanish university production from 2000 to 2004 as contained in Web of Science databases, applying social network visualization techniques. The co-authorship data used were extracted with the total counting method from a database containing 100,710 papers. Findings -Spanish inter-university collaboration patterns appear to be influenced by both geographic proximity and administrative and political affiliation. Inter-regional co-authorship encompasses regional sub-networks whose spatial scope conforms rather closely with Spanish geopolitical divisions. Papers involving international collaboration are written primarily with European Union and North and Latin American researchers. Greater visibility is attained with international co-authorship than with any other type of collaboration studied. Research limitations/implications -Impact was measured in terms of journals rather than each individual paper. The co-authorship data were taken from the Web of Knowledge and were not compared with data from other databases. Practical implications -The data obtained in the paper may provide guidance for public policy makers seeking to enhance and intensify the internationalization of scientific production in Spanish universities. Originality/value -The Spanish university system is in the midst of profound structural change. This is the first paper to describe Spanish university collaboration networks using social network visualization techniques, covering an area not previously addressed.

International collaboration in the creation of knowledge is changing the structural stratification of science, with implications for science policy. Analyses of collaboration in developing and emergent countries are of particular significance because initiatives are often the result of "research-for-aid" arrangements, generally based on North-South asymmetries. However, collaboration for mutual benefit and excellence has gained increasing acceptance, with "partner" selection becoming a strategic priority to enhance one's own production. This article explores the capacity of BRIC and select Latin American countries in the generation of scientific knowledge and their visibility at the global level in the field of nanoscience and nanotechnology. The goal is to determine to what extent countries benefit from the role of their collaborators to heighten research performance in terms of citation; and how collaboration could help countries to leverage their competitiveness through the design of research and development agendas. The method relies on the decomposition of leadership, as well as its consideration in view of performance indicators such as normalized citation impact, scientific excellence, and -018-2652-7 technological impact. The results suggest that the growth of international collaboration should be interpreted as a positive aspect. Furthermore, a progressive internationalization of scientific activity concerned with local needs or topics of interest is found to have the capacity to determine research agendas whose interest would extend to communities far beyond, thereby contributing to the development of science at a national level.

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