Erdős number and co-authorship network: an application of graph theory in scientometrics

Document Type : Promotional Paper

Author

Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Technical Faculties Campus, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

For over half a century, mathematicians have referred to the distance between themselves and Paul Erdős, the Hungarian mathematician, in writing joint scientific papers as the Erdős number. The Erdős number is an example of the distance between nodes in the co-authorship network of mathematicians, one of the networks used in scientometrics to study scientific collaborations and their behaviors. In this article, after reviewing the history of the Erdős number and its significance among mathematicians, we examine the co-authorship network as an example of the applications of graph theory in the field of scientometrics

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