Critical mass and the dependency of research quality on group size

Details Critical mass and the dependency of research quality on group size Critical mass and the dependency of research quality on group size

2010-06-04

arxiv.org/abs/1006.0928v2

Scientometrics 86:527-540,2011

Physics

Physics and Society

16 pages, 6 figures consisting of 16 panels. Presentation and reference list improved for version 2

Scientific paper

10.1007/s11192-010-0282-9

Academic research groups are treated as complex systems and their cooperative behaviour is analysed from a mathematical and statistical viewpoint. Contrary to the naive expectation that the quality of a research group is simply given by the mean calibre of its individual scientists, we show that intra-group interactions play a dominant role. Our model manifests phenomena akin to phase transitions which are brought about by these interactions, and which facilitate the quantification of the notion of critical mass for research groups. We present these critical masses for many academic areas. A consequence of our analysis is that overall research performance of a given discipline is improved by supporting medium-sized groups over large ones, while small groups must strive to achieve critical mass.

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