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Published Online April 12, 2007
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1136099

Reports

Submitted on November 10, 2006
Accepted on April 3, 2007

The Increasing Dominance of Teams in Production of Knowledge

Stefan Wuchty 1, Benjamin F. Jones 2, Brian Uzzi 3*

1 Northwestern Institute on Complexity (NICO), Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
2 Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
3 Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and the Northwestern Institute on Complexity (NICO), Evanston, IL 60208, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Brian Uzzi , E-mail: uzzi{at}northwestern.edu

We have used 19.9 million papers over 5 decades and 2.1 million patents to demonstrate that teams increasingly dominate solo authors in the production of knowledge. Research is increasingly done in teams across virtually all fields. Teams typically produce more highly cited research than individuals do, and this advantage is increasing over time. Teams now also produce the exceptionally high impact research, even where that distinction was once the domain of solo authors. These results are detailed for the sciences and engineering, social sciences, arts and humanities, and patents, suggesting that the process of knowledge creation has fundamentally changed.


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E-Letters:

Read all E-Letters

Small versus Big Teamwork
Adeilton A. Brandao
Science Online, 2 Aug 2007 [Full text]

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)