How does collaboration affect researchers' positions in co-authorship networks?

Collaboration usually has a positive effect on researchers' productivity: researchers have become increasingly collaborative, according to recent studies. Numerous studies have focused on enhancing research collaboration by recommendation technology and measuring the influence of researchers. However, few studies have investigated the effect of collaboration on the position of a researcher in the research social network. In this paper, we explore the relationships between collaboration and influence by social analytical methods, which are pertinent to analyzing the network structure and individual traits. We evaluate three aspects of the researchers' influence: friendship paradox validation, social circle, and structure of a researcher's ego network. Furthermore, the "six degrees of Bacon number" theory, generalized friendship paradox, and triadic closure theory are introduced to support our analysis. Experimental results show that collaboration can help researchers increase their influence to some extent. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.