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Hsu et al. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2018;5:9 Neuroimmunology
DOI: 10.20517/2347-8659.2018.03 and Neuroinflammation

Original Article Open Access

Applying clustering coefficient to the pattern
of international author collaboration in

neuroimmunology and neuroinflammation

Chen-Fang Hsu , Tsair-Wei Chien , Julie Chi Chow , Willy Chou 4,5
1
1,3
2
1 Department of Paediatrics, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan 710, Taiwan.
2 Research Department, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan 710, Taiwan.
3 Department of Paediatrics, Kaohsiung Medical University, Kaohsiung 800, Taiwan.
4 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chi-Mei Medical Center, Tainan 710, Taiwan.
5 Department of Recreation and Health-Care Management & Institute of Recreation Industry Management, Chia Nan University of
Pharmacy, Tainan 711, Taiwan.

Correspondence to: Dr. Willy Chou, Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Chi-Mei Medical Center, 901 Chung
Hwa Road, Yung Kung Dist., Tainan 710, Taiwan. E-mail: ufan0101@ms22.hinet.net

How to cite this article: Hsu CF, Chien TW, Chow JC, Chou W. Applying clustering coefficient to the pattern of international
author collaboration in neuroimmunology and neuroinflammation. Neuroimmunol Neuroinflammation 2018;5:9.
http://dx.doi.org/10.20517/2347-8659.2018.03
Received: 23 Jan 2018 First Decision: 3 Mar 2018 Revised: 15 Mar 2018 Accepted: 22 Mar 2018 Published: 30 Mar 2018

Science Editor: Athanassios P. Kyritsis Copy Editor: Jun-Yao Li Production Editor: Cai-Hong Wang

Abstract
Aim: To apply cluster coefficient (CC) to the pattern of international author collaborations in neuroimmunology and
neuroinflammation using data from Medline and to visualize results using Google maps and social network analysis (SNA).

Methods: Selecting 2799 abstracts, author names, countries, and keywords on January 22, 2018 from Medline
based on keyword neuroimmunology (or neuroinflammation) within the article title since 1982, we reported
following features: (1) nation distribution for the 1st author’s nationality; (2) eminent journals and authors in the
field of neuroimmunology and neuroinflammation; (3) notable keywords defined by authors representing both
neuroimmunology and neuroinflammation; and (4) CCs in networks. We programmed Microsoft Excel VBA routines
to extract data from Medline and used Google Maps and SNA Pajek software to display graphical representations with
an easy-to-read feature for readers.

Results: We found that: (1) the most number of papers in neuroimmunology and neuroinflammation are from
the USA (902, 32.23%) and China (363, 12.97%); (2) the productive journals and authors in neuroimmunology and
neuroinflammation are J Neuroinflammation and PLoS One, and Michael T. Heneka (Germany) and Richard M. Ransohoff (USA); (3)

© The Author(s) 2018. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use,
sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, for any purpose, even commercially, as long
as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made.

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