Kin of coauthorship in five decades of health science literature

Prosperi, Mattia, Buchan, Iain ORCID: 0000-0003-3392-1650, Fanti, Iuri, Meloni, Sandro, Palladino, Pietro and Torvik, Vetle I (2016) Kin of coauthorship in five decades of health science literature. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 113 (32). pp. 8957-8962.

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Abstract

Family background-kinship-can propagate careers. The evidence for academic nepotism is littered with complex associations and disputed causal inferences. Surname clustering, albeit with very careful consideration of surnames' flows across regions and time periods, can be used to reflect family ties. We examined surname patterns in the health science literature, by country, across five decades. Over 21 million papers indexed in the MEDLINE/PubMed database were analyzed. We identified relevant country-specific kinship trends over time and found that authors who are part of a kin tend to occupy central positions in their collaborative networks. Just as kin build potent academic networks with their own resources, societies may do well to provide equivalent support for talented individuals with fewer resources, on the periphery of networks.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	social capital, kinship, health science literature, PubMed, demographic model
Divisions:	Faculty of Health and Life Sciences Faculty of Health and Life Sciences > Institute of Population Health
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	25 Feb 2022 08:25
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 21:11
DOI:	10.1073/pnas.1517745113
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3149510