An exploration of collaborative scientific production at MIT through spatial organization and institutional affiliation

PLoS One. 2017 Jun 22;12(6):e0179334. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0179334. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Academic research is increasingly cross-disciplinary and collaborative, between and within institutions. In this context, what is the role and relevance of an individual's spatial position on a campus? We examine the collaboration patterns of faculty at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, through their academic output (papers and patents), and their organizational structures (institutional affiliation and spatial configuration) over a 10-year time span. An initial comparison of output types reveals: 1. diverging trends in the composition of collaborative teams over time (size, faculty versus non-faculty, etc.); and 2. substantively different patterns of cross-building and cross-disciplinary collaboration. We then construct a multi-layered network of authors, and find two significant features of collaboration on campus: 1. a network topology and community structure that reveals spatial versus institutional collaboration bias; and 2. a persistent relationship between proximity and collaboration, well fit with an exponential decay model. This relationship is consistent for both papers and patents, and present also in exclusively cross-disciplinary work. These insights contribute an architectural dimension to the field of scientometrics, and take a first step toward empirical space-planning policy that supports collaboration within institutions.

MeSH terms

  • Cooperative Behavior*
  • Faculty
  • Patents as Topic
  • Publications / statistics & numerical data
  • Science / organization & administration*
  • Science / statistics & numerical data*
  • Universities / organization & administration

Grants and funding

The authors received no specific funding for this work.