Understanding Large Temporal Networks and Spatial Networks: Exploration, Pattern Searching, Visualization and Network Evolution

4Scientific Citation and Other Bibliographic Networks

The literature covering all of the many scientific disciplines is vast. As a result, its citation network is enormous. It can be viewed as one whole network, or attention can be focused on coherent parts of it. Our strong preference is for the latter strategy. For the substantive reasons laid out in Section 1.3, we pursue only two of these scientific citation networks here. One is for the centrality literature¹ with the other featuring network analysis as a whole.

4.1 The Centrality Citation Network

As we note in Section 1.3.1, the centrality literature was started by the Bavelas (1948) paper reporting on experiments for task-oriented groups. The experimental control variable was the communication structure of a task-oriented group charged with distributing information to all of its members. The outcome variable was the time it took the group to complete its task. While centrality did not appear explicitly in this paper, the experimental outcomes can be expressed as: 1) centrality in the network is predictive of actor outcomes, and 2) network centralization is predictive of the task completion times. A research literature was spawned featuring social psychology, small group processes, experimental design, social organization, business administration, and measurement as substantive and technical concerns. Centrality was seen as a useful concept linking these diverse topics, one with great implications for the study of social ...