Stand back, I'm going to try science. wait...let's work together
January 29, 2011 10:08 AM Subscribe
Map of scientific collaboration between researchers. [ High Res] , [ zoomable version]
Related: Facebook map.
![[ High Res]](http://collabo.olihb.com/collabo_links.jpg){kind=link}
Related: Facebook map.
I don't think it's totally useless, but I agree it's hard to derive useful information from it. It looks like we can deduce that everyone has European collaborators and that Japan and either South Korea or one bit of China write a lot of papers together. The bright line between what I think is Boston and somewhere else on the East Coast is interesting, but I have no idea what it means. Boston has a high concentration of universities, so it's presumably going to be bright, but I don't know what the other city is. (DC possibly?) Similarly, there's a slightly curious vertical line running through the middle of the US, but it's hard to tell what that means. (It could just be a bunch of collaboration between Manitoba and Texas, or it could be that those universities are all collaborating with each other. I don't think it matches an interstate, which would be a hint to the latter.)
posted by hoyland at 11:06 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by hoyland at 11:06 AM on January 29, 2011
Occasionally a scientist will collaborate for some logical reason, such as having complementary skills with another scientist. Mostly though, we collaborate because there is a funding advantage to it. For a while you could get funding for collaborating with a scientist in Israel, then you could get funding for collaborating with a Palestinian or a scientist based in a former Soviet republic. These days, many grants have requirements for an education component, so government scientists are eager to collaborate with University scientists who can take care of that component. There are also grants that favor multi-party regional coordination. I look for all of that in the map, but I can't see it.
posted by acrasis at 11:13 AM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by acrasis at 11:13 AM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
Occasionally a scientist will collaborate for some logical reason, such as having complementary skills with another scientist
If you're at a predominantly undergraduate institution, collaboration is essential to get most things done as you have neither the tme nor the manpower, nor the resources to do good science at any reasonable rate. Most of my colleagues collaborate, and it is damn well logical.
But yes, the reasons you listed above are also used.
posted by lalochezia at 11:18 AM on January 29, 2011
If you're at a predominantly undergraduate institution, collaboration is essential to get most things done as you have neither the tme nor the manpower, nor the resources to do good science at any reasonable rate. Most of my colleagues collaborate, and it is damn well logical.
But yes, the reasons you listed above are also used.
posted by lalochezia at 11:18 AM on January 29, 2011
Mostly though, we collaborate because there is a funding advantage to it.
This must vary by field but the "mostly" isn't my experience at all.
posted by grouse at 11:25 AM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
This must vary by field but the "mostly" isn't my experience at all.
posted by grouse at 11:25 AM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
The bright line in the Northeast US is from Boston to DC via New Haven, New York City and Philadelphia. In addition to university-based research the DC area has a huge contingent of Federal gov't researchers (NIH, DoD, NASA, USDA, USGS etc.)
posted by plastic_animals at 11:31 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by plastic_animals at 11:31 AM on January 29, 2011
Occasionally a scientist will collaborate for some logical reason, such as having complementary skills with another scientist.
In my field this is almost always.
posted by special-k at 11:38 AM on January 29, 2011
In my field this is almost always.
posted by special-k at 11:38 AM on January 29, 2011
The bright band on the west coast is the UC system.
posted by special-k at 11:40 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by special-k at 11:40 AM on January 29, 2011
I'm surprised at how dim Australia is, especially compared to Brazil.
posted by fermezporte at 11:53 AM on January 29, 2011
posted by fermezporte at 11:53 AM on January 29, 2011
Brazil has nearly 10 times as many people as Australia.
posted by girih knot at 1:47 PM on January 29, 2011
posted by girih knot at 1:47 PM on January 29, 2011
That huge bright line on the East Coast of the USA is all of the collaborations between the NIH and the Boston institutions, I figure.
posted by scblackman at 1:58 PM on January 29, 2011
posted by scblackman at 1:58 PM on January 29, 2011
I just tried to overlay part of this with a map of the US because I was curious how the home town was doing and the more I looked, the more I realized that either the HAL 9000 project is really starting to pay off for Urbana Illinois or Chicago is doing a lot of collaborations with The Middle of Lake Michigan Institute of Technology.
Unfortunately, well, I wish I would have read this before nooding around with Paint Shop for half an hour...
On the other hand, spending a day in the lab to avoid an hour in the library is a cornerstone of the scientific method.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 4:11 PM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
Unfortunately, well, I wish I would have read this before nooding around with Paint Shop for half an hour...
On the other hand, spending a day in the lab to avoid an hour in the library is a cornerstone of the scientific method.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 4:11 PM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]
It would be interesting to create such a map year-by-year as far back as records go. Again, not super-useful, but it might be neat to see what sort of shifts there have been over the decades.
posted by Sangermaine at 5:26 PM on January 29, 2011
posted by Sangermaine at 5:26 PM on January 29, 2011
Reading through the comments Kid Charlemagne links to it's clear that the author made the map because he thought the patterns would be interesting rather than for any analytical purpose. That is, there isn't a lot of science behind the map. It is mainly "I have a big database of collaborations let's put them on a map and see if it looks cool". That's perfectly fine but I wouldn't analyze the map for too much meaning.
It would be interesting to see how the map changes over time. I wonder if you would see pattern changes as the Internet gets more widely used?
It would also be interesting to map data from different publishers (all these are from Elsevier, which historically is more of an outlet for European, and especially Dutch, researchers) and from different disciplines. I image a map for a discipline that primarily does work in small, self-contained labs is going to look a lot different one from the earth/ocean/climate fields which look at global problems and that are often only possible to conduct with international teams.
posted by plastic_animals at 7:22 AM on January 30, 2011
It would be interesting to see how the map changes over time. I wonder if you would see pattern changes as the Internet gets more widely used?
It would also be interesting to map data from different publishers (all these are from Elsevier, which historically is more of an outlet for European, and especially Dutch, researchers) and from different disciplines. I image a map for a discipline that primarily does work in small, self-contained labs is going to look a lot different one from the earth/ocean/climate fields which look at global problems and that are often only possible to conduct with international teams.
posted by plastic_animals at 7:22 AM on January 30, 2011
Can I get a real-time version of this?
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:22 PM on January 30, 2011
posted by Mental Wimp at 12:22 PM on January 30, 2011
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posted by Nelson at 10:46 AM on January 29, 2011 [1 favorite]