A Coauthorship Network as an Indicator for Scientifi c Collaboration: A Case Study for the School of Biology and Biotechnology, National University of Mongolia

Abstract

This case study analyzes coauthorship collaboration, or lack thereof, among individual faculty members and departments in the School of Biology and Biotechnology of the National University of Mongolia. I found that publication rates and coauthorship networks in impact-factor journals between 2008 and 2012 (as of October 31, 2012) are highly variable among the eight biology departments we studied, both within and among departments. Even in the best cases, publication rates and coauthorship networks were not suffi cient. We call such insuffi cient coauthorship collaboration among different departments as (non)network of coauthorship. The size of departments and observed coauthorship networks (both connectance and linkage density) appear to positively, although insignifi cantly, affect not only the total number of publications, but also the publication rate per faculty per year. We suggest that this kind of analysis can be important for administration of academic institutions, for improving the scientifi c outputs of academic entities by facilitating collaborative efforts and for rationalizing organizational structures and merit-based promotion systems for more productive and effi cient academic operations.