Visualization of the relative relevance of researchers based on their textual production

Abstract

Building a researchers affinity network through the automatic processing of their publications allows us to gain a perspective that goes beyond the networks established through co-authorship. The definition of the importance of each researcher is defined upon their bibliographic production volume, i.e., number of publications, and also upon their centrality in the general network of researchers. In fact, the centrality of a researcher in a network reveals its importance in communication flows with other researchers, thus assuming that communication between researchers is itself a relevant factor for organizational life and in its production. Both network and centrality concepts are better interpreted in a graphical way. In this study, we explore the workflow that will provide these visualizations and focus in the empirical selection of the most appropriate centrality measure. We also propose a centrality visualization method that facilitates the interpretation of the selected measures.