Aftermath of a tragedy: A star's death and coauthors’ subsequent productivity

Abstract

Following the death of a star scientist, do coauthors experience a uniform decline in productivity? Prior work informs us that the death of a star negatively influences coauthors’ productivity. In this study, I extend this idea 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 heterogeneously affected the subsequent productivity of coauthors. In particular, I find that the effective size of the coauthors' collaboration network mitigated the negative effect of a star's death. In contrast, the stability of the coauthors' collaboration network intensified the negative aftermath of the loss of a star scientist. The findings uncover the role of collaborative ties of the coauthors of a deceased star in pursuit of scientific research.