title: Visualization analysis of author collaborations in schizophrenia research.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that levies a heavy medical toll and cost burden throughout the world. Scientific collaborations are necessary for progress in psychiatric research. However, there have been few publications on scientific collaborations in schizophrenia. The aim of this study was to investigate the extent of author collaborations in schizophrenia research.
  
  
  METHODS
  This study used 58,107 records on schizophrenia from 2003 to 2012 which were downloaded from Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI Expanded) via Web of Science. CiteSpace III, an information visualization and analysis software, was used to make a visual analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Collaborative author networks within the field of schizophrenia were determined using published documents. We found that external author collaboration networks were more scattered while potential author collaboration networks were more compact. Results from hierarchical clustering analysis showed that the main collaborative field was genetic research in schizophrenia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the results, authors belonging to different institutions and in different countries should be encouraged to collaborate in schizophrenia research. This will help researchers focus their studies on key issues, and allow each other to offer reasonable suggestions for making polices and providing scientific evidence to effectively diagnose, prevent, and cure schizophrenia.
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, South Xinjian Road, Taiyuan, China. wuguaiguai9896@sohu.com.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Shanxi Medical University, South Xinjian Road, Taiyuan, China. dzg52827@aliyun.com.
authors.forename: Zhiguang
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Duan
mesh_terms: D035843:Biomedical Research / Q000592:standards; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D066275:Health Information Exchange / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D033181:Information Dissemination / Q000379:methods*; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012108:Research Personnel / Q000592:standards; D012559:Schizophrenia; D018581:Technology Transfer