A Study of the Influence of Collaboration Networks and Knowledge Networks on the Citations of Papers in Sports Industry in China

Abstract

A scientific paper’s citation represents its influence, which is the most intuitive indicator to access the quality of papers. This paper mainly adopts the social network analysis method, using the authors and the keywords of sports industry papers in China to constitute the networks of collaboration and knowledge, to explore effects of the degree centrality of authors and keywords and the structural hole of authors and keywords on the citation of papers in the collaboration and knowledge networks and draw the following conclusions: (1) as for collaboration networks, the degree centrality at the paper level is positively correlated with citations; (2) in the collaboration network, the positive correlation between the structural hole at the paper level and citations does not exist; (3) within knowledge networks, an inverted- $U$ shape was found between degree centrality and paper’s citation; and (4) within knowledge networks, a positive correlation is in existence between the structural hole of papers and their citation. This study synthesizes the already widely used collaboration network with the knowledge network constructed through keywords, distinguishes from the previous network features focusing at the author level, and explores research projects of Chinese Sports Industry from the paper level, providing a new perspective for the research of sports industry in China, complementing the methods and ideas of sports industry research, as well as providing a reference for the research in other disciplinary fields.