A social network analysis of ICTD conferences (2006–2017)

ABSTRACT

Information and Communication Technologies for Development is an interdisciplinary area of research associated with engineering, application, and adoption of ICTs in developing regions and/or for development. The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) was started in 2006 with the objective to build a community of scholars and practitioners from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. In this paper, we examine the social dimension of ICTD as manifest in co-authorship ties in the papers published in conference proceedings. This research community has 1053 unique authors from 302 institutions in 55 countries. Almost 85% of 456 papers are co-authored by two or more people. Initially, the research community displayed small-world characteristics but the social network subsequently displays a distinct core-periphery structure. Further, collaborative ties among academic institutions in developing countries are comparatively less. A key implication is that institutional support is imperative to initiate and maintain collaborative research ties.

KEYWORDS:

• Social network analysis
• ICTD conference
• collaboration
• co-Authorship

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Maitrayee Mukerji is an alumnus of Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA), India. She has four years of experience in software development and is engaged in teaching and research in MIS/IS, ICT-D and e-Governance. Her book titled ICTs and Development: A Study of Telecenters in Rural India juxtaposes the global discourse on ICT-D with in-depth case studies on the pattern of access and use of telecenters in rural India to draw implication for policy and practice.

Unnati Chauhan is currently pursuing graduation in Electronics and Communication Engineering from Govind Ballabh Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India. She aspires to pursue a career in data science and business analytics.