Effects of civil war: Scientific cooperation in the republics of the former Yugoslavia and the province of Kosovo

In this study we investigate the scientific output of Yugoslavia and its successor republics viz. Serbia, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. Additionally, Kosovo was included as a separate entity, since it recently declared its independence. The publications and cooperation between the republics are analyzed for the years from 1970 until 2007. In contrast to similar studies, we examine a larger time window and take into consideration not only the three big republics (Serbia, Croatia, and Slovenia) but also include the smaller ones, namely Bosnia & Herzegovina, Macedonia and Montenegro. For our analysis we introduce two new indicators: the normalized cooperation score and the dominance factor, a measure of dominance within a weighted network. Furthermore, we develop and assess the reliability of various techniques for visualizing our findings. We found that the civil wars had a severe impact on the inner-Yugoslav cooperation network. Additionally it seems, as if with the ending of the conflicts a process of recovery started.