title: Dynamics of social network structure for Alzheimer and Lymphoma scientific communities.
abstract: It is generally assumed that sociology affects scientific progress but specific examples of this assumption are hard to find. We examined this hypothesis by comparing the social network structure and its dynamics over the last 16 years, for two common human diseases; Alzheimer's disease, for which there has been very little therapeutic progress, and Lymphoma, were there has been significant therapeutic progress. We found that the Alzheimer's research community is more interlinked ('dense') and more 'cliquish' than that of Lymphoma and suggest that this could affect its scientific progress.
authors.affiliation: The Edmond & Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences and The Department of Biological Chemistry, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, 91904, Israel. barbashshahar@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Shahar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Barbash
mesh_terms: D000544:Alzheimer Disease; D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D007391:International Cooperation; D008223:Lymphoma; D011642:Publications; D012108:Research Personnel; D012944:Social Support; D012961:Sociology