Joint Estimation of the Non-parametric Transitivity and Preferential Attachment Functions in Scientific Co-authorship Networks

We propose a statistical method to estimate simultaneously the non-parametric transitivity and preferential attachment functions in a growing network, in contrast to conventional methods that either estimate each function in isolation or assume some functional form for them. Our model is shown to be a good fit to two real-world co-authorship networks and be able to bring to light intriguing details of the preferential attachment and transitivity phenomena that would be unavailable under traditional methods. We also introduce a method to quantify the amount of contributions of those phenomena in the growth process of a network based on the probabilistic dynamic process induced by the model formula. Applying this method, we found that transitivity dominated PA in both co-authorship networks. This suggests the importance of indirect relations in scientific creative processes. The proposed methods are implemented in the R package FoFaF.