Insights on scientific collaboration among Philippine Physics researchers from co-authorship network analysis

Abstract

Introducing a valuable initiative aimed at advancing the essential groundwork for studying research output and collaboration within research communities in the Philippines, a co-authorship network in the field of Physics was generated using data from the Scopus database. We constructed a network based on 2,175 papers, published between 2004 and 2020, with 2,627 unique authors, affiliated with 187 Philippine institutions. We found the network to be fragmented, with only around a third of authors in the largest connected component. We also found prominent clusters of connected authors coming from the same institution. Overall, the network is sparse, with a density of 0.002, and has a high clustering coefficient of 0.755, compared to an international Physics network − indicating that in the Philippine Physics network, researchers tend to cluster together but there are few collaborations between clusters. Our initial findings demonstrate the potential of this quantitative approach to be developed further with an aim to identify opportunities for collaboration and inform strategies and policies toward strengthening networks within Philippine research communities.