Cooperation between information management researchers: structural evidences of fragmentation of relations in the scientific field

Abstract

Based on the assumption that scientific knowledge is socially constructed, the objective of the present article is to analyze the cooperation standards between the researchers in the field of Information Management. Under an institutional perspective of analysis, the authors have studied the structure of relations of co-authorship in the studied field through the analysis of the social networks. Evaluating the collaboration in the production of 228 articles published in the annual meeting of the Anpad (National Association of Graduate Courses and Research in Administration), in the years of 2002 and 2006, 359 authors have been identified. It was verified that the area presents great fragmentation, with 87 formed components, of which only 11 have more than 5 authors. In the evaluation of the centrality of the authors, it was observed that there is an intimate relation between cooperation, intermediation and closeness, in which some authors are better ranked. The relation between centrality and scientific production was significantly strong and authors that collaborate tend to be more productive. Finally, analyzing if the components of larger size configured as small worlds, it was verified that, even presenting a high score, the components tend more to cohesion. Hence the conclusion that the area develops more by means of closed groups than by collaborating with other groups.