Economic and Regional Development is a subject of research that is not recent in the international literature. The unequal spatial distribution of income, economic opportunities and activities has attracted the interest of a large number of researchers in recent decades. The studies focused on the spatial disparities between the regions and their evolution over time using statistical analysis methods. In this paper we present a systematic review of the existing literature of economic and regional development through quantitative methods and social network analysis. Via research questions we summarize the different research approaches and offer a discussion and suggestions for future research. To what extent has regional development been studied by quantitative methods? How is research evolving in regional development of the European Union? Has Social Network Analysis been used in the context of regional development? This paper attempts to go one step further and introduce the use of techniques and methods of Social Network Analysis in Economic and Regional Development. Read more

Scientific collaboration networks as a research area have been the focus of the scientific community for years, across various disciplines and subjects, including health-medicine, economics, engineering, social sciences, environment, technology, and many more. In this systematic literature review, scientific collaboration networks have been examined using social networking analysis, focusing on data extracted from Scopus, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and SpringerLink, resulting in 348 articles, published from 1984 onwards. This review attempts to answer three research questions: 1) how research on scientific collaboration networks has evolved throughout the years, 2) what the focus of the literature on scientific collaboration networks is and, 3) how Social Network Analysis has been used in the context of scientific collaboration network studies. The study revealed a surge in publications, mainly from 2016 onwards, with most of the articles focusing on health-medicine, technology, and environmental issues. By examining authors, institutions, universities, countries, and citations, this review seeks to reveal new trends, collaboration, structural patterns, influential actors, and dynamics of the field. Social networking analysis is combined with many other methodologies and techniques, like network construction, descriptive analysis, statistics, longitudinal analysis, Machine Learning and AI, and community detection, revealing research gaps, like the need for interdisciplinarity and international scientific collaboration, gender-based and peripheral actors’ studies. Finally, this review underlines the potential for studying scientific collaboration networks in regions with less representation. Read more