arXiv subjects

Yougui Wang

Publications and source records attributed to Yougui Wang.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Disruptive papers in science are losing impact

The impact and originality are two critical dimensions for evaluating scientific publications, measured by citation and disruption metrics respectively. Despite the extensive effort made to understand the statistical properties and evolution of each of these metrics, the relations between the two remain unclear. In this paper, we study the evolution during last 70 years of the correlation between scientific papers' citation and disruption, finding surprisingly a decreasing trend from positive to negative correlations over the years. Consequently, during the years, there are fewer and fewer disruptive works among the highly cited papers. These results suggest that highly disruptive studies nowadays attract less attention from the scientific community. The analysis on papers' references supports this trend, showing that papers citing older references, less popular references and diverse references become to have less citations. Possible explanations for the less attention phenomenon could be due to the increasing information overload in science, and citations become more and more prominent for impact. This is supported by the evidence that research fields with more papers have a more negative correlation between citation and disruption. Finally, we show the generality of our findings by analyzing and comparing six disciplines.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2022

Impactful scientists have higher tendency to involve collaborators in new topics

In scientific research, collaboration is one of the most effective ways to take advantage of new ideas, skills, resources, and for performing interdisciplinary research. Although collaboration networks have been intensively studied, the question of how individual scientists choose collaborators to study a new research topic remains almost unexplored. Here, we investigate the statistics and mechanisms of collaborations of individual scientists along their careers, revealing that, in general, collaborators are involved in significantly fewer topics than expected from controlled surrogate. In particular, we find that highly productive scientists tend to have higher fraction of single-topic collaborators, while highly cited, i.e., impactful, scientists have higher fraction of multi-topic collaborators. We also suggest a plausible mechanism for this distinction. Moreover, we investigate the cases where scientists involve existing collaborators into a new topic. We find that compared to productive scientists, impactful scientists show strong preference of collaboration with high impact scientists on a new topic. Finally, we validate our findings by investigating active scientists in different years and across different disciplines.

cs.DL↗

arXiv2020

The critical role of fresh teams in creating original and multi-disciplinary research

Teamwork is one of the most prominent features in modern science. It is now well-understood that the team size is an important factor that affects team creativity. However, the crucial question of how the character of research studies is influenced by the freshness of the team remains unclear. In this paper, we quantify the team freshness according to the absent of prior collaboration among team members. Our results suggest that fresher teams tend to produce works of higher originality and more multi-disciplinary impact. These effects are even magnified in larger teams. Furthermore, we find that freshness defined by new team members in a paper is a more effective indicator of research originality and multi-disciplinarity compared to freshness defined by new collaboration relations among team members. Finally, we show that career freshness of members also plays an important role in increasing the originality and multi-disciplinarity of produced papers.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2018

Increasing trend of scientists to switch between topics

We analyze the publication records of individual scientists, aiming to quantify the topic switching dynamics of scientists and its influence. For each scientist, the relations among her publications are characterized via shared references. We find that the co-citing network of the papers of a scientist exhibits a clear community structure where each major community represents a research topic. Our analysis suggests that scientists tend to have a narrow distribution of the number of topics. However, researchers nowadays switch more frequently between topics than those in the early days. We also find that high switching probability in early career (<12y) is associated with low overall productivity, while it is correlated with high overall productivity in latter career. Interestingly, the average citation per paper, however, is in all career stages negatively correlated with the switching probability. We propose a model with exploitation and exploration mechanisms that can explain the main observed features.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2017

The q-dependent detrended cross-correlation analysis of stock market

The properties of q-dependent cross-correlation matrices of stock market have been analyzed by using the random matrix theory and complex network. The correlation structures of the fluctuations at different magnitudes have unique properties. The cross-correlations among small fluctuations are much stronger than those among large fluctuations. The large and small fluctuations are dominated by different groups of stocks. We use complex network representation to study these q-dependent matrices and discover some new identities. By utilizing those q-dependent correlation-based networks, we are able to construct some portfolio by those most independent stocks which consistently perform the best. The optimal multifractal order for portfolio optimization is approximately $q=2$. These results have deepened our understanding about the collective behaviors of the complex financial system.

q-fin.ST↗

arXiv2010

Maximizing Entropy Yields Spatial Scaling in Social Networks

In addition to the well known common properties such as small world and community structures, recent empirical investigations suggest a universal scaling law for the spatial structure of social networks. It is found that the probability density distribution of an individual to have a friend at distance $r$ scales as $P(r)\propto r^{-1}$. The basic principle that yields this spatial scaling property is not yet understood. Here we propose a fundamental origin for this law based on the concept of entropy. We show that this spatial scaling law can result from maximization of information entropy, which means individuals seek to maximize the diversity of their friendships. Such spatial distribution can benefit individuals significantly in optimally collecting information in a social network.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2009

The Scaling laws of Spatial Structure in Social Networks

Social network structure is very important for understanding human information diffusing, cooperating and competing patterns. It can bring us with some deep insights about how people affect each other. As a part of complex networks, social networks have been studied extensively. Many important universal properties with which we are quite familiar have been recovered, such as scale free degree distribution, small world, community structure, self-similarity and navigability. According to some empirical investigations, we conclude that our social network also possesses another important universal property. The spatial structure of social network is scale invariable. The distribution of geographic distance between friendship is about $Pr(d)\propto d^{-1}$ which is harmonious with navigability. More importantly, from the perspective of searching information, this kind of property can benefit individuals most.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

The Economic Mobility in Money Transfer

In this paper, we investigate the economic mobility in some money transfer models which have been applied into the research on wealth distribution. We demonstrate the mobility by recording the time series of agents' ranks and observing their volatility. We also compare the mobility quantitatively by employing an index, "the per capita aggregate change in log-income", raised by economists. Like the shape of distribution, the character of mobility is also decided by the trading rule in these transfer models. It is worth noting that even though different models have the same type of distribution, their mobility characters may be quite different.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

Prospects for Money Transfer Models

Recently, in order to explore the mechanism behind wealth or income distribution, several models have been proposed by applying principles of statistical mechanics. These models share some characteristics, such as consisting of a group of individual agents, a pile of money and a specific trading rule. Whatever the trading rule is, the most noteworthy fact is that money is always transferred from one agent to another in the transferring process. So we call them money transfer models. Besides explaining income and wealth distributions, money transfer models can also be applied to other disciplines. In this paper we summarize these areas as statistical distribution, economic mobility, transfer rate and money creation. First, money distribution (or income distribution) can be exhibited by recording the money stock (flow). Second, the economic mobility can be shown by tracing the change in wealth or income over time for each agent. Third, the transfer rate of money and its determinants can be analyzed by tracing the transferring process of each one unit of money. Finally, money creation process can also be investigated by permitting agents go into debts. Some future extensions to these models are anticipated to be structural improvement and generalized mathematical analysis.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

Dynamic Process of Money Transfer Models

We have studied numerically the statistical mechanics of the dynamic phenomena, including money circulation and economic mobility, in some transfer models. The models on which our investigations were performed are the basic model proposed by A. Dragulescu and V. Yakovenko [1], the model with uniform saving rate developed by A. Chakraborti and B.K. Chakrabarti [2], and its extended model with diverse saving rate [3]. The velocity of circulation is found to be inversely related with the average holding time of money. In order to check the nature of money transferring process in these models, we demonstrated the probability distributions of holding time. In the model with uniform saving rate, the distribution obeys exponential law, which indicates money transfer here is a kind of Poisson process. But when the saving rate is set diversely, the holding time distribution follows a power law. The velocity can also be deduced from a typical individual's optimal choice. In this way, an approach for building the micro-foundation of velocity is provided. In order to expose the dynamic mechanism behind the distribution in microscope, we examined the mobility by collecting the time series of agents' rank and measured it by employing an index raised by economists. In the model with uniform saving rate, the higher saving rate, the slower agents moves in the economy. Meanwhile, all of the agents have the same chance to be the rich. However, it is not the case in the model with diverse saving rate, where the assumed economy falls into stratification. The volatility distribution of the agents' ranks are also demonstrated to distinguish the differences among these models.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

The Velocity of Money in a Life-Cycle Model

The determinants of the velocity of money have been examined based on life-cycle hypothesis. The velocity of money can be expressed by reciprocal of the average value of holding time which is defined as interval between participating exchanges for one unit of money. This expression indicates that the velocity is governed by behavior patterns of economic agents and open a way to constructing micro-foundation of it. It is found that time pattern of income and expense for a representative individual can be obtained from a simple version of life-cycle model, and average holding time of money resulted from the individual's optimal choice depends on the expected length of relevant planning periods.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

How Required Reserve Ratio Affects Distribution and Velocity of Money

In this paper the dependence of wealth distribution and the velocity of money on the required reserve ratio is examined based on a random transfer model of money and computer simulations. A fractional reserve banking system is introduced to the model where money creation can be achieved by bank loans and the monetary aggregate is determined by the monetary base and the required reserve ratio. It is shown that monetary wealth follows asymmetric Laplace distribution and latency time of money follows exponential distribution. The expression of monetary wealth distribution and that of the velocity of money in terms of the required reserve ratio are presented in a good agreement with simulation results.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

The Circulation of Money and Holding Time Distribution

We have studied the statistical mechanics of money circulation in a closed economic system. An explicit statistical formulation of the circulation velocity of money is presented for the first time by introducing the concept of holding time of money. The result indicates that the velocity is governed by behavior patterns of economic agents. Computer simulations have been carried out in order to demonstrate the shape of the holding time distribution. We find that, money circulation is a Poisson process in which the holding time probability distribution follows a type of Gamma distribution, and the velocity of money depends on the share for exchange and the number of agents.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

Effects of Saving and Spending Patterns on Holding Time Distribution

The effects of saving and spending patterns on holding time distribution of money are investigated based on the ideal gas-like models. We show the steady-state distribution obeys an exponential law when the saving factor is set uniformly, and a power law when the saving factor is set diversely. The power distribution can also be obtained by proposing a new model where the preferential spending behavior is considered. The association of the distribution with the probability of money to be exchanged has also been discussed.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2005

Power-Law Distributions in Circulating Money: Effect of Preferential Behavior

We introduce preferential behavior into the study on statistical mechanics of money circulation. The computer simulation results show that the preferential behavior can lead to power laws on distributions over both holding time and amount of money held by agents. However, some constraints are needed in generation mechanism to ensure the robustness of power-law distributions.

physics.soc-ph↗

arXiv2004

Emergence of Specialization from Global Optimizing Evolution in a Multi-Agent System

The evolution of specialization in a multi-agent system is studied both by computer simulation and Markov process model. Many individual agents search for and exploit resources to get global optimization in an environment without complete information. With the selection acting on agent specialization at the level of system and under the condition of increasing returns, the division of labor emerges as the results of long-term optimizing evolution. Mathematical analysis gives the optimum division of agents and a Markov chain model is proposed to describe the evolutionary dynamics. The results are in good agreement with that of simulation model.

nlin.AO↗

arXiv2004

Physics of Econophysics

Econophysics is a new area developed recently by the cooperation between economists, mathematicians and physicists. It's not a tool to predict future prices of stocks and exchange rates. It applies idea, method and models in Statistical Physics and Complexity to analyze data from economical phenomena. In this paper, three examples from three active main topics in Econophysics are presented first. Then using these examples, we analyze the role of Physics in Econophysics. Some comments and emphasis on Physics of Econophysics are included. New idea of network analysis for economy systems is proposed, while the actual analysis is still in progress.

cond-mat.soft↗