SEARCH RESULT

Social network analysis investigates relationships in a networked structure in order to interpret the roles of individuals and evaluate their respective importance. The common approach is employing graph theory that models the network as a graph data structure. Graphs are mathematical abstractions to model pairwise relations between objects. A graph is comprised of nodes connected with edges. While nodes indicate individuals in a network, edges signify relationships or interactions. In this paper, we evaluate the research performance of the European countries considering the research activities within the framework of European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST). Founded in 1971, COST is the oldest and widest scientific intergovernmental framework in Europe supporting 37 countries including Turkey. COST can be considered as an incubator to set up interdisciplinary research networks since it provides support for network activities such as meetings, training schools, short scientific exchanges, etc. but does not fund the research itself. Therefore, we believe that the research network under COST can be a good indicator to analyze relationships between countries in research activities and evaluate the research performance of the countries. In this paper, we considered research actions funded by COST between 2012-2017 and evaluated research performance of the countries according to their participations andinteractions. To assess the performance, we modeled the relationships between countries on a directed graph and applied centrality analysis which is a common approach to evaluate the relative importance of a node within the network. Each action is coordinated by a management committee which is composed of a chair and at most two delegates per participant country. In the graph, each participant country is denoted with a node. We classify the countries according to their roles in the action. Since the proposer of the action becomes the chair, usually,we regard the country of the chair as a gateway to access the action. Therefore, to signify the relationship between two countries, a directed edge is added from the participant country to the respective country of the chair. Note that several projects were considered over a span of 6 years and multiple interactions between two nodes are indicated as the edge weight.

International Conference on Advanced Technologies, Computer Engineering and Science
ICATCES

İzzet Fatih Şentürk Burak Taş