Hi Cristina,

There is a lot of work in this field. Glance through the journal Scientometrics and their corresponding email listserv, sigmetrics. Info on the listserv can be found at: http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html

For you particular problem, three group of authors that spring quickly into my head are:
M.E.J Newman 2001 PNAS article: The structure of scientific collaboration networks (also had another big paper in this topic in 2004 PNAS but cannot remember title off top of my head)
Barabassi et al "Evolution of the social network of scientific collaborations" in Physica A 2002
Bettencourt and Kaiser's work (for example, "The power of a good idea" in Physica A 364 (2006) 513–536) and "Population modeling of the emergence and development of scientific fields" in Scientometrics 2008

That'll get you started at least. In general there are two approaches for what you wish to do: examining coauthorship network (who is working with who) or co-citation networks (a group of people citing each other).

Ryan Zelnio
George Mason University

-----Original Message-----
From: Social Networks Discussion Forum on behalf of Cristina Durlan
Sent: Wed 11/25/2009 5:21 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [SOCNET] References of use of SNA to study forms of scientific =
communities
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***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****

Hi to everyone.

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I would be grateful if anyone could help me with some specific useful
references related to the use of SNA to study forms of scientific
communities (invisible college, epistemic community, community of =
practice,
thought collectives, networks of trust, interdisciplinary groups, etc.)

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My inquiry relates to an analysis about the forms of cohesion in the
scientific community; for example, to see if there are specific forms of
cohesion that characterize a discipline, a paradigm, a scientific area.=20

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Thank you.

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Regards.

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Cristina Durlan

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Departamento de Sociolog=EDa y Trabajo Social

Escuela Universitaria de Estudios Empresariales

P=BA Prado de la Magdalena, s/n, 47005 Valladolid

Tel.: 983 42 3583

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