The Study of Network Effects on Research Impact in Africa

Abstract This paper studies the relationship between the position of individual scientists within co-authorship networks and their scientific performance. Using co-authorship data from African scientists in the Health and Medical Sciences within a timespan of 15 years (2000–2015), we characterize the collaboration networks and calculate centrality measures for each scientist to explore how scientific production and impact can be associated with their position within the network. Our findings reveal that authors who occupy a better position within their network and are deemed to actively collaborate with others also have a higher research impact. In this regard, South African scientists do not differ from those in the rest of the world.