Differences and similarities among research groups classified as B by Colciencias. A Social Network Analysis case

Abstract

Networks are used to study social structure of people and organizations. We analyzed research groups from Universidad Central because it is unknown the way researchers are related when writing, what the preferred issues are and where their work is published. In order to understand and identify these relationships, we chose 4 groups classified as B from Colciencias database. Then we applied Social Network Analysis to produce information in the form of graphs and centrality, cohesion measures. We found different patterns of the structures of coautorship networks despite the identical group classification. Keywords networks from social groups are denser than those from administrative and engineering groups. Finally, 3 of the publishing networks are highly dependent in the university funding press. We concluded that methodology is suitable for uncovering research activities, allows to characterize the groups and they are not alike notwithstanding the same classification.