The Analysis of Co-authorship and Networks among the Korean Pathologists

Background: To evaluate the characteristics of the co-authorship and its network within the Korean Pathologists' Society. Methods: In the KoreaMed database, 11,420 articles and 72,478 authors from 1991 to 2010 were searched. The patterns of co-authorship of the authors and institutions were analyzed to build a network matrix. The network centrality indices were measured with UCINET 6.0 and sociogram, and were drawn with Netdraw 5.0. KeyPlayer 1.44 was used for key player analysis. Results: The number of articles that pathologist participated in increased; however, the number of articles that the pathologists are the first author did not increase. The centrality degrees from 1991 to 2010 were 4.16% and 0.3% for the institutions and authors network, respectively. From 1991 to 2000, Seoul National University had the highest degree of centrality and was a key player. However, from 2001 to 2010, Ulsan replaced the position. For the authors, Chi, Je Geun was highest centrality author and key player during the 1991 to 2000 time period. From 2001 to 2010, Yoo, Jinyoung had the highest degree of centrality and Kim, Na Rae was a key player. Overall, most of the centrality indices were occupied by only a few institutions and authors. Conclusions: The network among the pathologist society is a typical small world society.