Collaboration networks in vegetation sciences: the case of Latin America and the Caribbean in JVS and AVS.

BOTTIN M.; LIPOMA L.; LÓPEZ-MÁRSICO L.; ZEBALLOS R. S.; GIORGIS M.A.; MENDIETA-LEIVA G.; PEYRE, GWENDOLYN; DAMASCENO G.; XOCHITL PÉREZ VALLADARES C.

Simposio; The 63rd Annual Symposium of the IAVS; 2021

Collaboration networks are the backbone of modern science. Socio-economic differences between the global south and the global north may be reflected in the structure of these networks. Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region of the global south is an important scientific contributor. Bibliometry, beyond its classical use for monitoring the productivity of researchers, may also allow fine analysis of scientific literature. We used it, associated with tools from graph theory, to describe the global vegetation science collaboration network from co-authored publications in the journals of the IAVS: Journal of Vegetation Science and Applied Vegetation Science. Our objective was to describe the specificity of the LAC region within the global collaboration network. LAC institutions are well integrated in the global network and there are clear relationships between institutions at the national level. However, analysis of shortest paths between pairs of institutions showed that the regional connectivity between countries is much weaker than in other regions such as North America or Europe. We will discuss the potential strategies to help developing vegetation science in LAC, in light of these results and the perspective of the new regional section of the IAVS in LAC (IAVS-LAC).