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Atapuerca: evolution of scientific collaboration in an emergent large-scale research infrastructure

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Abstract

We study the evolution of scientific collaboration at Atapuerca’s archaeological complex along its emergence as a large-scale research infrastructure (LSRI). Using bibliometric and fieldwork data, we build and analyze co-authorship networks corresponding to the period 1992–2011. The analysis of such structures reveals a stable core of scholars with a long experience in Atapuerca’s fieldwork, which would control coauthorship-related information flows, and a tree-like periphery mostly populated by ‘external’ researchers. Interestingly, this scenario corresponds to the idea of a Equipo de Investigación de Atapuerca, originally envisioned by Atapuerca’s first director 30 years ago. These results have important systemic implications, both in terms of resilience of co-authorship structures and of ‘oriented’ or ‘guided’ self-organized network growth. Taking into account the scientific relevance of LSRIs, we expect a growing number of quantitative studies addressing collaboration among scholars in this sort of facilities in general and, particularly, emergent phenomena like the Atapuerca case.

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Notes

  1. Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), http://www.cenieh.es/.

  2. Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), http://www.iphes.cat/.

  3. http://www.museoevolucionhumana.com.

  4. http://www.atapuerca.org/.

  5. According to their citation count by May 2012.

  6. http://www.python.org/.

  7. See http://docs.python.org/2/library/difflib.html.

  8. See http://igraph.sourceforge.net/.

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Acknowledgments

The authors want to thank Javier Fernández López de Pablo and Ignasi Pastó for fruitful discussions, and the two anonymous referees for their valuable comments on the manuscript. This work has been partially supported by the Spanish DGICYT Grants CGL2012-38434-C03-03 and FIS2012-38266, the Generalitat de Catalunya Grants 2009-SGR-188 and 2009-SGR-838, as well as the FP7-FET Project PLEXMATH. Sergi Lozano acknowledges the Beatriu de Pinós post-doctoral research fellowship (Generalitat de Catalunya and COFUND Marie Curie Actions, EU-FP7), and Alex Arenas the financial support from ICREA Academia and James S. McDonnell Foundation. Fieldwork at Atapuerca is supported by Junta de Castilla y León and Fundación Atapuerca.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. IPHES, Institut Catala de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social, 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Sergi Lozano, Xosé-Pedro Rodríguez & Alex Arenas

  2. Area de Prehistoria, Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV), 43002, Tarragona, Spain

    Sergi Lozano & Xosé-Pedro Rodríguez

  3. Departament dEnginyeria Informatica i Matematiques, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43007, Tarragona, Spain

    Alex Arenas

  4. Institute for Biocomputation and Physics of Complex Systems (BIFI), University of Zaragoza, 50018, Saragossa, Spain

    Alex Arenas

Authors
  1. Sergi Lozano
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  2. Xosé-Pedro Rodríguez
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Correspondence to Sergi Lozano.

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Sergi Lozano and Alex Arenas are members of the COMPATHEVOL Research Group.

Appendix: TOP-20 articles of Atapuerca

Appendix: TOP-20 articles of Atapuerca

As explained in the main text, the bibliometric dataset was based on the following list of 20 high impact publications reporting the most important empirical findings at the archaeological complex and introducing theories based on them.

  • Carbonell, E.; Bermúdez de Castro, J.M.; Arsuaga, J.L.; Díez, J.C.; Rosas, A.; Cuenca-Bescós, G.; Sala, R.; Mosquera, M. & Rodríguez, X.P. (1995). Lower Pleistocene hominids and artefacts from Atapuerca-TD6 (Spain). Science 269 (5225), 826–830.

  • Arsuaga, J. L., I. Martinez, A. Gracia, and C. Lorenzo. 1997. The Sima de los Huesos crania (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). A comparative study. Journal of Human Evolution 33:219–281.

  • Falguères, C., J.-J. Bahain, Y. Yokoyama, J. L. Arsuaga, J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, E. Carbonell, J. L. Bischoff, and J.-M. Dolo. 1999. Earliest humans in Europe: the age of TD6 Gran Dolina, Atapuerca, Spain. Journal of Human Evolution 37:343–352.

  • Arsuaga, J.L.; Martínez, I.; Gracia, A.; Carretero, J.M. & Carbonell, E. (1993): Three new human skulls from the Sima de los Huesos in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). Nature 362(6420):534–537.

  • Parés, J. M., and A. Pérez-González. 1995. Paleomagnetic age for hominid fossils at Atapuerca archaeological site, Spain. Science 269:830–832.

  • Carbonell, E.; J. M. Bermúdez de Castro, J. M. Parés, A. Pérez-González, G. Cuenca-Bescós, A. Ollé, M. Mosquera, R. Huguet, J. van der Made, A. Rosas, R. Sala, J. Vallverdú, N. García, D. E. Granger, M. Martinón-Torres, X. P. Rodríguez, G. M. Stock, J. M. Verges, E. Allué, F. Burjachs, I. Cáceres, A. Canals, A. Benito, C. Díez, M. Lozano, A. Mateos, M. Navazo, J. Rodríguez, J. Rosell, J. L. Arsuaga. 2008. The first Hominin of Europe. Nature. 452, 465–469.

  • Fernández-Jalvo, Y., and P. Andrews. 1992. Small mammal taphonomy of Gran Dolina, Atapuerca (Burgos), Spain. Journal of Archaeological Science 19:407–428.

  • Bermúdez de Castro, J. M., J.L. Arsuaga; Carbonell, E; A. Rosas, I. Martínez & M. Mosquera (1997). A Hominid from the Lower Pleistocene of Atapuerca, Spain: Possible Ancestor to Neandertals and Modern Humans. Science 276:1392–1395.

  • Arsuaga, J. L., I. Martinez, A. Gracia, J. M. Carretero, C. Lorenzo, N. Garcia, and A. I. Ortega. 1997. Sima de los Huesos (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). The site. Journal of Human Evolution 33:109–127.

  • Parés, J. M., and A. Pérez-González. 1999. Magnetochronology and stratigraphy at Gran Dolina section, Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 37:325–342.

  • Bischoff, J. L., R. W. Williams, R. J. Rosenbauer, A. Aramburu, J. L. Arsuaga, N. García, and G. Cuenca-Bescós. 2007. High-resolution U-series dates from the Sima de los Huesos hominids yields: implications for the evolution of the early Neanderthal lineage. Journal of Archaeological Science 34:763–770.

  • Bischoff, J. L., J. A. Fitzpatrick, L. León, J. L. Arsuaga, C. Falgueres, J. J. Bahain, and T. Bullen. 1997. Geology and preliminary dating of the hominid-bearing sedimentary fill of the Sima de los Huesos chamber, Cueva Mayor of the Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain. Journal of Human Evolution 33:129–154.

  • Arsuaga JL, Lorenzo C, Carretero JM, Gracia A, Martinez I, Garcia N, Bermúdez de Castro JM, Carbonell E (1999) A complete human pelvis from the Middle Pleistocene of Spain. Nature 399(6733):255–258.

  • Cuenca-Bescós G, Laplana C, Canudo J.L. (1999). Biochronological implications of the Arvicolidae (Rodentia, Mammalia) from the Lower Pleistocene hominid-bearing level of Trinchera Dolina 6 (TD6, Atapuerca, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 37(3–4):353–373.

  • Bischoff JL, Shamp DD, Aramburu A, Arsuaga JL, Carbonell E, de Castro JMB (2003). The Sima de los Huesos hominids date to beyond U/Th equilibrium (>350 kyr) and perhaps to 400-500 kyr: New radiometric dates. Journal of Archaeological Science 30(3):275–280.

  • Arsuaga, J. L., I. Martinez, C. Lorenzo, A. Gracia, A. Muñoz, O. Alonso, and J. Gallego. 1999. The human cranial remains from Gran Dolina Lower Pleistocene site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 37:431–457.

  • Arsuaga, J. L., Carretero, J.M., Lorenzo, C., Gracia, A., Martínez, I., Bermúdez de Castro, J.M. & Carbonell, E. (1997): Size variation in Middle Pleistocene humans. Science 277:1086–1088.

  • Fernández-Jalvo, Y., Díez, C., Cáceres, I. & Rosell J. 1999. Human cannibalism in the Early Pleistocene of Europe (Gran Dolina, Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain). Journal of Human Evolution 37(3–4):591–622.

  • Martínez I, Arsuaga JL (1997) The temporal bones from Sima de los Huesos Middle Pleistocene site (Sierra de Atapuerca, Spain). A phylogenetic approach. Journal of Human Evolution 33(2–3):283–318.

  • Martinón-Torres, M., M. Bastir, et al. (2006). Hominin lower second premolar morphology: evolutionary inferences through geometric morphometric analysis. Journal of Human Evolution 50(5):523–533.

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Lozano, S., Rodríguez, XP. & Arenas, A. Atapuerca: evolution of scientific collaboration in an emergent large-scale research infrastructure. Scientometrics 98, 1505–1520 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-013-1162-x

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