Great minds think alike, or do they often differ? Research topic overlap and the formation of scientific teams.

ABSTRACT: Over the last century scientific research has become an increasingly collaborative endeavor. Commentators have pointed to different factors which contribute to this trend, including the specialization of science and growing need for diversity of interest and expertise areas in a scientific team. Very few studies, however, have precisely evaluated how the diversity of interest topics between researchers is related to the emergence of collaboration. Existing theoretical arguments suggest a curvilinear relationship between topic similarity and collaboration: too little similarity can complicate communication and agreement, yet too much overlap can increase competition and limit the potential for synergy. We test this idea using data on six years of publications across all disciplines at a lar

SUBMITTER: Smith TB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7742966 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature