Network analysis of co-participation in thesis examination committees in an academic field in Spain

Abstract

This paper applies complex network analysis to unveil the informal structure of the knowledge area of business organization — Organización de empresas— in Spain. To do so, we use the TESEO database. We retrieve and statically analyze all the theses referred to the UNESCO academic field of Organization and management of enterprises. Our results reveal a degree distribution of the participation in thesis examining committees and thesis supervision compatible with a truncated power law. Community analysis of the projected network of co-participation in dissertation committees shows a clear modular structure. When we focus on the backbone of such network, we find that the patterns detected can be partially explained by homophily of scholars that interact in the same academic association.

José Luis Garrido-Labrador

Assistant Lecturer in Computer Languages and Systems

PhD in Machine Learning, researching in semi-supervised learning and restricted set classification. Assistant Lecturer in Computer Languages and Systems at Universidad de Burgos.