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

Abstract

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 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.