preprint version "Globalisation in science in 2005"

Mon Mar 5 17:29:39 EST 2007

For my own learning process, let me try to respond to your original
questions, and then maybe the more experienced on the list can correct
me.
>My first question is, does every initial transaction between two
people, no matter how slight, establish a link in the network? The
alternative might be that certain thresholds of interaction must apply,
such as co-authorship or citation. My second question is, do you think
that the strength of a link might usefully be measured by the amount of
information that passes between the people linked?

Network analysis works on relationships as the basic unit (not
attributes, for example).  How these relationships are
defined/determined depends on what makes sense for the system being
studied.  We can look at co-authorship, co-citation, co-membership (in
an organization) or a 2-mode thing like co-attendees of an event...  So
we might look at co-authorship of only peer reviewed journal articles
that are in journals indexed by ISI -- which sets the bar fairly high.
For things like co-authorship, the relationship is non-directional but
can be valued.  It can have different weights for the number of times
the authors appear together if that makes sense to the phenomenon you
are studying.  Many times, it makes more sense to just have 1s and 0s --
link or no link.  As for amount of information, one of the problems in
network analysis is obtaining the data.  Can you interview everyone
involved?  How much information can you obtain about the actors?  Can
that information be easily made into a matrix for mathematical
operations?  I think there's the pragmatic aspect of what is do-able as
well as the science aspect of what you want to look at.

The standard book on SNA is Faust and Wasserman and there have been
several relevant chapters in ARIST on citation analysis, but you might
do best by reading Dr. Leydesdorff's books and web page.

Christina K. Pikas, MLS 
R.E. Gibson Library & Information Center
The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory 
Voice  240.228.4812 (Washington), 443.778.4812 (Baltimore) 
Fax 443.778.5353 

________________________________

From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics
[mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of David E. Wojick
Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 2:32 PM
To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] preprint version "Globalisation in science in
2005"

I am afraid I understand very little of what you have written. Not
enough to grasp the answers to my two questions. You (seem to) say that
transmission (via transactions) supplies variation to the network but I
would think it was the primary process that constitutes the network. You
say that the structure of the network is selective and I do not
understand what that means. Do you mean that the structure takes the
form it does because the people are selective in whom they communicate
with? In that case I agree but, again, it makes transactions the basic
unit.

Retention I do not understand, nor much of the rest. Meaning, degree of
freedom, stabilization, etc. I use all these words but not in your way
apparently. You are using a technical language that I do not speak. Is
this the language of network science?  Is there something I can read to
learn it? 

All my best,

David

At 02:36 AM 3/5/2007, you wrote:

	Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe):
http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html 
	Dear David, 

	Indeed, there is always a substantive side to the information
transmission: something is communicated. However, from the perspective
of the network this mainly provides the variation. The network is
spanned by these bottom-up processes, but then it is also a structure
(it contains an architecture). The structure is selective. Because the
network is changing, the selection mechanism is also at variance over
time. Some selection can then be selected for stabilization. This
provides the retention mechanism. 

	So far, the metaphor is biological. However, in social networks
one can expect one more degree of freedom because we also give meaning
to the information exchange and the meaning exchanges feedback on the
information exchanges. Therefore, some stabilizations can also be
selected for globalization. Thus, one obtains a non-linear dynamics of
communication. However, each communication also remains an "information
transaction:" it is not either ... or, but both. Or even better: all
four dimensions of probabilistic entropy.

	The information transaction alone is just a vector. The network
can be represented as a matrix. A network at each moment of time can be
modeled as a cube of information. For example, a trajectory can be
shaped within this cube. A trajectory which can be changed by
(inter-)human intervention provides us with a hypercube of information
(in four dimensions).

	With best wishes, 

	Loet

________________________________

	Loet Leydesdorff 
	Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
	Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
	Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681 
	loet at leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/ 

	Now available: The Knowledge-Based Economy: Modeled, Measured,
Simulated
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=158112937
8>  . 385 pp.; US$ 18.95 
	The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=158112695
6> ; The Challenge of Scientometrics
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=158112681
6> 

________________________________

		From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [
mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU <mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU>
] On Behalf Of David E. Wojick

		Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 8:01 PM

		To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU

		Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] preprint version
"Globalisation in science in 2005"

		Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example
unsubscribe): http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html Loet (and
all),

		This study is very interesting in the context of my
http://www.osti.gov/science.world/ project. But on a tangential note,
your mention of strong and weak links brings up a basic question about
network analysis, about which I know little. 

		I have a conceptual model of science diffusion in which
the basic element is the "information transaction." This is basically
one person getting information from another. My reading your paper for
example. Note that transactions have quantity as well, such as reading
your email, your abstract, part of your paper, all of it, etc.

		My first question is, does every initial transaction
between two people, no matter how slight, establish a link in the
network? The alternative might be that certain thresholds of interaction
must apply, such as co-authorship or citation. My second question is, do
you think that the strength of a link might usefully be measured by the
amount of information that passes between the people linked?

		If these issues are already discussed in the literature
I shall be happy to look at it. It is important because the vast
majority of transactions cannot be observed, just as in other cases of
diffusion.

		Best regards,

		David

		At 04:11 AM 2/27/2007, you wrote:

			Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example
unsubscribe): http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html 

			Globalisation in the network of science in 2005:
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/index.htm> 

			The diffusion of international collaboration and
the formation of a core group
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/index.htm> 

			[]
<http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/Globalisation.pdf>   <click here
for pdf> <http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/Globalisation.pdf> 

			Caroline S. Wagner

			SRI International, Arlington, Virginia, 22209,
USA

			Caroline.wagner at sri.com; http://www.cswagner.net
<http://www.cswagner.net/> 

			Loet Leydesdorff

			University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of
Communications Research (ASCoR)

			Kloveniersburgwel 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam, The
Netherlands

			International collaboration as measured by
co-authorships on refereed papers grew significantly from 1990 to 2005.
International communications in science can best be studied as a
network, since there is no political institution mediating relationships
at that level: links self-organize largely through contacts made by
scientists. As such, science at the international level shares features
with other complex adaptive systems whose order arises from the
interactions of hundreds of agents pursuing self-interested strategies.
Communications at the international level appears to have grown
significantly in the 1990s, with the addresses of many more countries
evident in collaborative articles. By 2005, global communications appear
to have reinforced the formation of a core group of highly cooperative
countries. This core group can be expected to use knowledge from the
global network with great efficiency, since these countries have strong
national systems. Countries at the periphery may be disadvantaged by the
strength of the core.

________________________________

			Loet Leydesdorff 

			Amsterdam School of Communications Research
(ASCoR)

			Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam

			Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681 

			loet at leydesdorff.net ;
http://www.leydesdorff.net/ 

			Now available: The Knowledge-Based Economy:
Modeled, Measured, Simulated
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=158112937
8>  . 385 pp.; US$ 18.95 

			The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based
Society
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=158112695
6> ; The Challenge of Scientometrics
<http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=158112681
6> 

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