Scientific Integration in Sociology James Moody Duke University Achim Edelmann Department of Sociology, University of Bern Duke Network Analysis Center With thanks to: Ryan Light – University of Oregon Erin Leahey – U Arizona Crystal Peoples, Duke U Networks & Science "Science, carved up into a host of detailed studies that have no link with one another, no longer forms a solid whole." Durkheim, 1933 Stratification Social Welfare Organizations Historical Sociology Crime Gender Health Two Problems of Intellectual Integration: 1. Topical Diversity. Consider the number of ASA sections… Numbers of ASA Sections 52 Year Two Problems of Intellectual Integration: 2. Local vision. We all see our own local point in the topic space as larger than it is… Two Problems of Intellectual Integration: Which combined leads to shallow & largely misinformed views of the remainder of the discipline. I want to move away from caricatures towards an “evidence based” map of the discipline. Focus on two types of integration: intellectual & social Publication Patterns •Data Sources: •Citation Networks •Compiled from the ISI web of science Journal citation tables •Covers 1681 social science journals indexed in 2003, •- 2925 in 2009 •Topic & Collaboration Networks •Compiled from Sociological Abstracts or Web of Science. • Web of Science: 1865-present (focus 1970),146 journals (all of the sociology category, plus the top Demography journals and top Management journals); N(papers):126,925 •Sociological Abstracts. 1965-2011, with full coverage of ~530 journals and at least one observation on over 4000 (many not primarily recognized as sociology); N(papers) 472,275. •SRA members list: Names of the 453 SRA members. Publication Patterns Who publishes? Publication volume distribution 68.1% 13 WoS corpus; 1970 to 2015. Publication Patterns Who publishes? Publication volume distribution 68.5% 22.3% Non SRA Top 1% SRA Top 1% 12 43 WoS corpus; 1970 to 2015. Most work is shaped by a minority of scholars at the tail of the distribution Intellectual integration View from 30,000ft Building co-citation networks Links in a co-citation network are constructed by measuring how similar each journal is to every other journal. Similarity is gauged by correlating the pattern of citations received by each journals from every other journal. AJS ASR AER … JER J1 # # 0 0 J2 # # 0 0 J3 0 0 # # J4 . . . JER 0 # # # 0 0 # # Comparing across columns tells us whether the two journals are recognized by others as similar. Intellectual integration View from 30,000ft Building co-citation networks Links in a co-citation network are constructed by measuring how similar each journal is to every other journal. Similarity is gauged by correlating the pattern of citations received by each journals from every other journal. AJS ASR AER … JER AJS 1.0 ASR High 1.0 AER . . . JER Low Med 1.0 Low Low High 1.0 This create a valued network of ties between two journals. I use a cosine similarity score developed in bibliometrics, selected for those with ties > 0.45 & at sharing at least 2% of their citation volume. Source: Loet Leydesdorff Intellectual integration View from 30,000ft Economics co-citation similarity network Density = 0.197 N=152 Isolates (not shown): 5 Node size proportional to log(degree) Intellectual integration View from 30,000ft Political Science co-citation similarity network Density = 0.160 N=69 Isolates (not shown): 10 Node size proportional to log(degree) Intellectual integration View from 30,000ft Sociology co-citation similarity network Density = 0.140 N=69 Isolates : 7 Intellectual integration (2005) Intellectual integration (2005) Intellectual integration (2009) – really no substantive change, some growth Intellectual integration Intellectual integration View from 30,000ft •Sociology “fits” at the center of the social sciences. We are not as internally cohesive as Economics or Law, but more so than many (anthropology, allied health fields). •This represents a tradeoff. We have traded unique dominance of a topic (markets, politics, mind, space) for diversity & thus centrality. •Sociology is an interstitial discipline in at least two-senses: •There is no content topic we can reasonably exclude •We pull together, and generate, the ideas and topics covered by specialty disciplines. •This makes us uniquely positioned to provide insights on many different empirical questions; but also makes it difficult to recognize disciplinary coherence. Intellectual coherence rests on a common intellectual core…does sociology have one? Intellectual integration What gets noticed? Citation Distributions 50% of papers 90% of papers 6 WoS corpus, 1970-2015 56 Intellectual integration What gets noticed? Citation Distributions About 16% of non-sra papers go uncited Non-SRA paper SRA paper About 0.4% of SRA papers go uncited WoS corpus, 1970-2015 Notes some of the most cited papers are non-SRA… Intellectual integration What gets noticed? Intellectual integration What gets noticed? Intellectual integration What gets noticed? Intellectual integration: Within-Discipline Citation Structure In practice, Sociologists recognize a common set of works. This is the co-citation core for the most commonly cited papers… Intellectual integration: Topic Structures Soc Abs Corpus Intellectual integration: Topic Structures Topical Specialization (Soc only Sample) (compiled) Sample restricted to just those with more than 1 publication in a core sociology journal, Soc Abs Corpus Intellectual integration: Topic Structures A fine grained view: Content (Soc only Sample) Our lack of specializations create topical connectivity Expanding to all clusters identified over this same 10-year period (color indicates k-core level; a measure of cohesion) 692 clusters Mean size: 45 (std=30) Min=12, max=203: Intellectual integration: Brief summary • Big Picture: Sociology is centrally located; lacking a strong boundary • But, a set of key papers (many published in the 70s and 80s) provide explanatory power and are mutually recognized by top producers • The distribution of recognition is highly unequal; which for science suggests agreement • Explanation is about verbs: how and why things get done, and we have a cohesive set of such works. • Topical diversity is large, but authors migrate between adjacent topics in cross-cutting ways.. • Which generates heavy topical cohesion (even before you add in bridges created through collaboration) • Collaboration provides the social dimension of disciplinary integration… Social integration: Collaboration Mean number of authors per paper Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus. Since 1970, 46% of all papers are collaborative. Social integration: Collaboration Mean number of authors per paper SRA Authors Non SRA Authors Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus. SRA authored papers are about 2.4 times more likely to be coauthored Social integration: Collaboration Papers indexed by SocAbs 1965-2012 Social integration: Collaboration Proportion of papers w. >1 author 1 Child Development Collaboration Variability across journals 0.8 Soc. Forces J. Health & Soc. Beh. ASR 0.6 AJS J.Am. Statistical A. 0.4 Atca Politica Soc. Theory 0.2 Signs J. Soc. History 0 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900 1000 Coauthorship Rank Sociological Abstracts, 1963-1999*; The figures through 2015 WoS sample are similar …more journals and a slightly steeper curve… 1100 Social integration: Collaboration Overall connectivity is increasing over time Short-term connectivity: Sociological Abstracts, core sociology journals only, 5-year moving average Social integration: Collaboration Total number of unique collaborators Non-SRA members SRA members Social integration: Collaboration Collaboration results in an expansive network Largest collaboration component amongst SRA members 92% of SRA members are connected to each other within the full WoS corpus; Social integration: Collaboration Closeness Centrality* Non-SRA members SRA members *Only applicable for those in the largest component Social integration: Collaboration Why? How do we account for the increase in collaboration volume and cohesion over time? Universalist Science model: •Change in nature of the work requires team production •Tools are largely content-free and thus methodologists float across topics •Theories are similarly empirically portable (though more constrained than methods) •Creativity and new ideas derive from bridging methods & areas Cynical Market Model: • Market for PhDs is acceleration, requiring longer CVs to win, leading to more (but “softer”) faculty-student publications •Striving for “interdisciplinary work”: token names on grants from different fields • Seems inconsistent w. the coherence of topics mixing, but can’t rule it out entirely… Intra-disciplinary discipline model: • Sociology is a unique field; positioned at the cross-roads of many social sciences. This creates a wide individual variance in topics that create linkages across distinct sub-disciplinary areas. Sociological integration: Intellectual Integration Linking Collaboration and Knowledge Production Archival Integration Well-defined problem frontiers and techniques allow individuals to build on each other’s work independently Complete Integration People working with each other & employing similar theoretical toolkits Completely Fractured: People working (largely) alone w. idiosyncratic theory, data and methods Opportunistic Collaboration Work with others in ad-hoc manner to promote particular projects, but no work done to link ideas across projects. Social Integration Integration Space for Scientific Disciplines Sociological integration: Intellectual Integration Linking Collaboration and Knowledge Production Archival Integration Well-defined problem frontiers and techniques allow individuals to build on each other’s work independently Organic Integration People working with each other, but on diverse and distinct topics employing cross-pollinating theoretical and methodological tools Completely Fractured: People working (largely) alone w. idiosyncratic theory, data and methods Opportunistic Collaboration Work with others in ad-hoc manner to promote particular projects, but no work done to link ideas across projects. Social Integration Integration Space for Scientific Disciplines Sociological integration: Good news: • Socially cohesive discipline with • Increasingly clustered topical structure • Moderately cohesive citation structure • Individually diverse publication trajectories – low specialization levels • Coauthors cross (sub)disciplines quickly • This is the structure of Organic Solidarity in science; contrasts with the naïve view of a discipline as united under one singular point of view (Econ is closer, it appears, to this). But not clear that’s a bad thing.. • Sociology as an Accidental Science Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Average number of pages* per paper Papers are getting longer… Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus. *Yes, pages is a silly metric due to different word counts…but wait… Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Average number of pages* per paper SRA Authors Non SRA-Authors Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus. *Yes, pages is a silly metric due to different word counts…but wait… Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Estimated number of words per paper, ASR/AJS Article Length (estimated words) Padgett & McLean (2006) Giordanno et al. (2002) Aral & Van Alstyne (2010) Powell et al. (2005) Maris (1970) Goodman (1974) DiMaggio et al. (1996) Goldstone (1986) Boorman & White (1976) Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Article Length (estimated words) Estimated number of words per paper, ASR/AJS A simple model suggests SRA authors are about 25% more likely to publish papers in the top 10% of the length distribution , in any given year. Some of you are multiple offenders… Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Average number of references per paper Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Average number of references per paper Has SRA Author Non SRA Author Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus. SRA authors are about 1.2 times more likely to be in the top 10% of bibliography lengths, within journal and year (decreasing over time) Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Average number of word in the title Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus. Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Average number of word in the title Publication of Moody’s landmark paper on title length… Excludes obvious notes/comments/responses; full WoS Sociology+ corpus. SRA authors are less likely than average, since 2003. Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Our papers are getting longer and more heavily referenced. • Ho: This is both cause and consequence of our current review system. Number of papers published each year… Note these are accepted papers, What reviewer load is implied here? • • • Assume 25% of papers submitted disappear Papers are reviewed by 2.5 people.. And go through 1.5 review cycles Publication Patterns What to worry about next… Our papers are getting longer and more heavily referenced. • Ho: This is both cause and consequence of our current review system. …results in many required reviews. This implies a need for about 26K reviews in 2014 (and the shape of the curve is not promising) Solutions? Let’s try an alternative mode of publication…