How Mexican researches in electronics collaborate for publication : coauthors working in a network

Objective: This article presents evidence of collaborative work processes in disciplinary scientific production coauthored by a network of experts in electronics and computing by documenting this network’s scientific activity. It is part of a wider study on writing and training trajectories of doctoral students (Carrasco [et al.], 2011; Kent, 2013; Brambila-Limón, 2015; Brambila-Limón [et al.], 2016).

Methodology: The research took the form of a qualitative study of a group of nine researchers in electronics whose leader has promoted collaborative publication over a period of 25 years. Each researcher completed a personal interview of approximately two hours and bibliometric measures of their productivity were made using the group's institutional platform.

Results: This article presents data on a group of scientists who collaborate in research and publication as coauthors. The results are presented in four sections: coauthorship; technology; roles and identity; and collaboration. The group, which publishes in English, sustains a higher rate of publication than other Mexican groups in the same discipline: 7.2 articles per researcher per year when conference papers are counted and 3.7 articles per researcher per year when only articles in peer-reviewed journals are considered. Their continuous improvement is monitored by the group leader, who pays close attention to publication lag times of each journal. We confirmed that group members play various roles to support their academic productivity, acting as authors as well as reviewers and evaluators of each article they produce for publication. In a highly competitive research and development field, we propose that group collaboration may be crucial in attaining recognition.