Evaluating funding programs through network centrality measures of co-author networks of technical papers

In this study, we analyze the temporal transition of network centrality of the co-author networks contained in the vast science and technology literature database. We investigated co-author relations of 1.92 million literatures for 15 years (2001–2015) in the literature database of Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). In addition, as case studies of funding programs conducted by government funding agencies, we analyzed the literatures written by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellows and JST PRESTO program researchers. According to the analysis results, network centralities of both JSPS Research Fellows and JST PRESTO program researchers showed significant features, i.e., growing rapidly to much higher rankings than those of all researchers in the database. Using these features, we propose a method to evaluate funding programs through network centrality measures of co-author networks.