Factors influencing the formation of intra-institutional formal research groups: group prediction from collaboration, organisational, and topical networks

The factors that foster successful scientific collaboration and team- work have been studied extensively. However, these factors have been studied in isolation and it is not clear to what extent one factor is more relevant than other in the formation of research groups. In this work we propose a new methodology based on network analysis to simultaneously evaluate multiple factors considered relevant in the conformation of formal research groups. Our methodology is supported on structural, statistical, and correlation analysis. In addition to validating our methodology with a case study at a research- teaching university, we introduce a new network to represent the success of sci- entific collaboration that produces the best prediction in group formation. Our methodology and the results obtained can be used for organising researchers in a university that seeks to strengthen its research strategy.