Aftermath of a Tragedy: A Star’s Death and Coauthors’ Subsequent Productivity

Abstract

Following the death of a star, do coauthors experience a uniform decline in their productivity? Prior work informs us that the death of a star negatively influences coauthors’ productivity. In this study, I extend this work and argue that the characteristics of coauthors’ collaboration networks moderate the negative association between a star’s death and coauthors’ productivity. The analyses of data on academic publications in pharmacology and pharmacy between 1980 and 2000 reveal that the death of stars has influenced the subsequent productivity of coauthors heterogeneously. In particular, I find that the effective size of the coauthor’s collaboration network mitigated the negative effect of a star’s death. In contrast, the stability of the coauthor’s collaboration network intensified the negative aftermath of the loss of a star scientist. The findings uncover the role of collaborative ties of coauthors of a deceased star in pursuit of scientific research.

Keywords: star scientists; coauthors; collaboration network; research productivity; academic publications

JEL Classification: O31, J24, I23