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The Structure of a Social Science Collaboration Network: Disciplinary Cohesion from 1963 to 1999

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The Structure of a Social Science Collaboration Network: Disciplinary Cohesion from 1963 to 1999 #1471-ASR 69:2 filename:69204-moody The Structure of a Social Science Collaboration Network: Disciplinary Cohesion from 1963 to 1999 James Moody The Ohio State University Has sociology become more socially integrated over the last 30 years? Recent work in the sociology of knowledge demonstrates a direct linkage between social interaction patterns and the structure of ideas, suggesting that scientific collaboration networks affect scientific practice. I test three competing models for sociological collaboration networks and find that a structurally cohesive core that has been growing steadily since the early 1960s characterizes the discipline’s coauthorship network. The results show 518-456-2041 • FAX 518-456-0109 • E-MAIL: [email protected] 518-456-2041 • FAX INC. MARCZAK BUSINESS SERVICES, that participation in the sociology collaboration network depends on research specialty and that quantitative work is more likely to be coauthored than non-quantitative work. However, structural embeddedness within the network core given collaboration is largely unrelated to specialty area. This pattern is consistent with a loosely overlapping specialty structure that has potentially integrative implications for theoretical development in sociology. Science, carved up into a host of detailed stud- ecent work in the sociology of knowledge ies that have no link with one another, no longer R|suggests that the set of ideas one holds to forms a solid whole. be true is largely a function of the group of Durkheim, 1933 [1984] p. 294 people one interacts with and references to authorities recognized by the group. This claim has been demonstrated in small groups (Martin 2002) and is consistent with literature on the Direct correspondence to James Moody, The Ohio social production of scientific knowledge State University, Department of Sociology, 372 (Babchuk et al. 1999; Crane 1972; Friedkin Bricker Hall, 190 N. Oval Mall, Columbus, OH, 1998; Kuhn 1970). Scientists embedded in col- 43210 ([email protected]). This work is laboration networks share ideas, use similar supported in part by NSF ITR/SOC-0080860 and techniques, and otherwise influence each other’s the Ohio State Initiative in Population Research. The SECOND PROOF work. Such effects have been studied in specif- author thanks jimi adams and Sara Bradley for help ic settings (Friedkin 1998) and implicated in lab with data collection and manuscript preparation; and ethnographies (Collins 1998; Owen-Smith Mark Handcock, Mark Newman, and Paul von Hipple for help with data or analysis. The author thanks the 2001), but this social interaction structure has following people for reading prior versions of the not been explored for entire disciplines. paper and providing helpful comments: Art Alderson, Although we might expect the link between Susanne Bunn, Ben Cornwell, Bill Form, David networks and ideas to be strongest in small Jacobs, Lisa Keister, Dan Lichter, Dan McFarland, groups, a logical extension suggests that long- Jason Owen-Smith, Woody Powell, and the partici- term trends in scientific work might depend on pants of the Stanford University SCANCOR semi- the broader pattern of disciplinary social net- nar and the University of Chicago Business School works.1 Organizations and Markets Workshop. The author thanks the ASR reviewers and editors (Camic and Wilson) for being extremely helpful; and reviewer John A. Stewart, in particular, for providing numer- 1 Much literature on citation networks suggests ous suggestions that improved this paper. similar subgroup effects and captures one facet of the AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW, 2004, VOL. 69 (April:213–238) #1471-ASR 69:2 filename:69204-moody 214—–AMERICAN SOCIOLOGICAL REVIEW Commentaries on sociology often describe a shapes the short-run course of a discipline lack of theoretical consensus without reference (Allison et al. 1982; Cole and Cole 1973; Merton to social cohesion, though the two should be 1968; Zuckerman 1977; see also Crane 1972). linked because structural cohesion is thought to Scientific stars attract a disproportionate level of generate coherent idea systems (Durkheim research funding, high-profile appointments, [1933] 1984; Hagstrom 1965; Hargens 1975; and many students and collaborators. Star sys- Martin 2002; Moody and White 2003; Whitley tems suggest an unequal distribution of involve- 2000). A network influence model suggests that ment in collaboration networks. Finally, changes if scientists exchange ideas, research questions, in research practice might interact with perme- methods, and implicit rules for evaluating evi- able theoretical boundaries to allow wide-rang- dence with their collaborators, then structural- ing collaborations that are not constrained by ly cohesive social networks should generate research specialty (Abbott 2001; Hudson 1996). consensus, at least with respect to problems For example, an increase in sophisticated quan- and methods if not on particular claims about titative methods, which are (at least on the sur- the empirical world (Friedkin 1998).2 This work face) substantively neutral, would allow suggests that understanding theoretical diversity collaboration between people with general tech- within a discipline requires understanding its nical skills and those working on particular collaboration structure. empirical questions. This process suggests a 518-456-0109 • E-MAIL: [email protected] 518-456-2041 • FAX INC. MARCZAK BUSINESS SERVICES, While a direct mapping from the idea space wide-reaching structurally cohesive collabora- to network structure is often not transparent, tion network. claims about theoretical consensus in sociology In this paper, I describe the structure of a suggest three distinct collaboration structures. social science collaboration network over time, and I link this structure to claims about social sci- First, many have noted that the discipline has no 3 overarching theory but, instead, is theoretically entific practice. I first review literature on net- fractured and composed of multiple discon- work structure and idea spaces, and link three nected research specialties. Authors argue that descriptions of the current state of sociological reactions against functionalism, rapid growth, practice to hypotheses about the structure of the institutional pressures for productivity, changing network. I then describe collaboration trends and examine explanations for increasing col- research techniques, and/or changes in the fund- laboration over time. After describing the data ing environment for social sciences have inter- source and measures, I first model participation acted to generate self-contained research in the collaboration network and then model specialties, with unique research techniques and position within the network given participation. standards for the evaluation of evidence (Collins I note two key findings. First, specialty areas dif- 2001; Davis 2001; Lieberson and Lynn 2002; fer in the likelihood of collaboration, and much Stinchcombe 2001). This description suggests a (but not all) of this difference is due to use of highly clustered social network. Second, others quantitative methods. Second, the resulting col- have argued that scientific production depends laboration network has a large structurally cohe- crucially on a few scientific stars, whose work SECOND PROOF sive core that has been growing steadily since the late 1960s (both absolutely and relative to ran- dom expectation given growth in the discipline). intellectual integration of scientific disciplines (Crane While research specialty predicts having col- and Small 1992; Hargens 2000). Citation networks laborated, specialty is only weakly related to are not social networks, however, and thus do not cap- ture the informal interaction structure described in position within the collaboration network, sug- work on social integration. Recent work has looked gesting a relatively equal representation of spe- at the global structure of large-scale collaboration net- cialties across the disciplinary network. works in the natural sciences (Newman 2001), but has not attempted to explain the features of such networks with respect to scientific practice. 3 While the majority of all authors in the data I use 2 That is, scientific competition for distinction are sociologists, the database does cover sociologi- should produce a race toward new empirical expla- cally relevant work produced by other disciplines. As nations, but to gain status within a field those claims such, while it is technically more accurate to speak must conform to the general rules of evidence cur- of “a social science” collaboration network, I will rent within the scientific network. often use “sociology” for simplicity. #1471-ASR 69:2 filename:69204-moody STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL SCIENCE COLLABORATION NETWORK—–215 SOCIAL AND THEORETICAL sciences from descriptions of scientific practice INTEGRATION and speculate about the potential for scientific consensus in a field based on the observed col- NETWORK STRUCTURES AND IDEA SPACES laboration pattern. There is increasing interest in linking the dis- tribution of cultural ideas and practices to the THEORY AND PRACTICE IN SOCIAL SCIENCE interaction structure of social communities (Bearman 1993; Burt 1987; Crane 1972; Martin THEORETICAL FRAGMENTATION. There is much lit- 2002; Swidler and Arditi 1994). Theorists have erature on the lack of theoretical consensus in sociology (Abbott 2000; Collins 1986; Connell long argued that one’s ideas are a function of 5 position in a social setting,
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