The science network in Italian population research: an analysis according to the social network perspective

The scientific community organises its relationships into network patterns, where the nodes are individuals (scientists) and the links are acquaintance and common work, usually presented at workshops and conferences and/or published in books and scientific journals. A references review on Population Studies by Italian scientists is delivered every two years by the Demography Section of the Italian Statistical Society; the review is exhaustive for academic demographers. In this paper, the properties of the demographers’ network in 1998–1999 are evaluated, with the aim of identifying factors which may influence collaborative relations among actors. The probability of cooperation between couples (dyads) of demographers is modelled, conditionally on observed characteristics of the dyad (sex, academic position, university affiliation). Main results suggest that “closeness”, defined in a wider sense and not simply as geographical proximity, plays a major role in determining actors’ relationships.