Several tests for assessing patterns within the collaboration network and its main component.

Note. Moran’s I statistic of autocorrelation ranges from −1.0 (perfect negative autocorrelation) through 0 (no autocorrelation) to +1.0 (perfect positive autocorrelation). Geary’s C statistic of autocorrelation ranges from 0.0 (perfect positive autocorrelation) through +1.0 (no autocorrelation) to +2.0 (perfect negative autocorrelation). According to Hanneman and Riddle [42], Geary’s C statistic is more sensitive to “local” differences, while Moran’s I statistic is more sensitive to how similar or dissimilar is each pair to the overall average (i.e. “global” difference). Several tests for assessing patterns within the collaboration network and its main component.