Scientific authorship and collaboration network analysis on malaria research in Benin: papers indexed in the web of science (1996–2016)

Abstract

BackgroundTo sustain the critical progress made, prioritization and a multidisciplinary approach to malaria research remain important to the national malaria control program in Benin. To document the structure of the malaria collaborative research in Benin, we analyze authorship of the scientific documents published on malaria from Benin.MethodsWe collected bibliographic data from the Web Of Science on malaria research in Benin from January 1996 to December 2016. From the collected data, a mulitigraph co-authorship network with authors representing vertices was generated. An edge was drawn between two authors when they co-author a paper. We computed vertex degree, betweenness, closeness, and eigenvectors among others to identify prolific authors. We further assess the weak points and how information flow in the network. Finally, we perform a hierarchical clustering analysis, and Monte-Carlo simulations.ResultsOverall, 427 publications were included in this study. The generated network contained 1792 authors and 116,388 parallel edges which converted in a weighted graph of 1792 vertices and 95,787 edges. Our results suggested that prolific authors with higher degrees tend to collaborate more. The hierarchical clustering revealed 23 clusters, seven of which form a giant component containing 94% of all the vertices in the network. This giant component has all the characteristics of a small-world network with a small shortest path distance between pairs of three, a diameter of 10 and a high clustering coefficient of 0.964. However, Monte-Carlo simulations suggested our observed network is an unusual type of small-world network. Sixteen vertices were identified as weak articulation points within the network.ConclusionThe malaria research collaboration network in Benin is a complex network that seems to display the characteristics of a small-world network. This research reveals the presence of closed research groups where collaborative research likely happens only between members. Interdisciplinary collaboration tends to occur at higher levels between prolific researchers. Continuously supporting, stabilizing the identified key brokers and most productive authors in the Malaria research collaborative network is an urgent need in Benin. It will foster the malaria research network and ensure the promotion of junior scientists in the field.

Discovering the research focus of higher academic institutions

“…In the same vein, the recurrence of words such as finance, medical, business, Nigeria and Africa implies that a number of Nigerian computer scholars engage in application research which links Computer Science with other disciplines with Nigeria and Africa as case studies. This observation supports the current assertion by Azondekon et al (2018) that there is a move towards interdisciplinary research.…”

Research impact and productivity of Benin according to the Science Citation Index Expanded (1973 to 2018)

“…Far more national and international collaboration is needed (Jiggins et al, 2016), because collaboration is currently dominated by long tenure authors who only collaborate among themselves. Collaborations should be more open with young researchers who are starting their careers (Azondekon, 2018;Azondekon, Harper, Agossa, Welzig, & McRoy, 2018).…”

Top 100 cited noninvasive neuromodulation clinical trials

“…Many variables can explain the differences of the size of our analysis to Azondekon et al, 2018 including time period of analysis, public health burden of the condition and field differences. It is likely that the neuromodulation authorship network will grow with time as the fields progress into more clinical applications [132,133].…”