Very relevant to the idea of scientific research as a network put forward by Fortunato et al, Li et al use a network of coauthorship to try to understand how strongly who researchers partner with early in their careers plays a role in the strength of their future careers.

Important parts of this complex network are the human dynamics. Li et al analyze the network relationships of coauthorship with top researchers on the outcomes for a researcher. Contrandriopoulos et al choose to expand the analyzed network effects beyond just coauthorship more fully to analyzing the communities researchers belong to and the structural positions they hold within these networks.

Qi et al find that collaborators have a significant impact on the outcomes of early career researchers’ future citations. This aligns with the findings of Li et al. Qi et al also show that this relationship is not linear, and that “more outstanding scientists” produces diminishing benefit to the early researcher as a collaborator.