A network model for growth of publications and citations

The number of papers published by a researcher and the number of times his papers have been cited are sometimes used as indicators of the level of achievement of the researcher. Based on a network of prospective coauthors of a researcher (a network of prospective referrers of a researcher's work), we rigorously derive a model, expressed in terms of a set of ordinary differential equations, that captures the dynamic growth of publications (citations) of the researcher. Then, we utilize this model to analyse historical publication and citation data of over 1000 researchers. Results show that these data all follow the growth equation. Furthermore, statistical results show that collaboration is the common denominator of prolific researchers.