Network and actor attribute effects on the performance of researchers in two fields of social science in a small peripheral community

The aim of this study is to explore the network effects of the national and disciplinary community and actor attribute effects on the future performance of scientists in two fields of social sciences in Croatia. Based on the publication data from 1992 to 2012, extracted from three databases, we used the co-authorship network from the period 1992-2001 for the specification of nine structural effects to predict individual performance in the 2002-2012 period. Employing the auto-logistic actor attribute models allowed the inclusion of six actor attributes and the analysis of their effects simultaneously with network effects. The results show that future performance is dependent on the national and disciplinary network both in the psychology field and in the sociology field. When controlling for actor attribute effects, these structural effects play a significant role only in sociology, where activity in the network is a negative predictor and having a tie with an actor who is going to be above average in productivity is a positive predictor of the outcome. Institution type in psychology, age and the previous productivity in sociology are significant actor attribute effects. We used log-odds to demonstrate the probabilities of the outcome for three prototypical egonet structures: open, closed and complex; with different numbers of alters with attribute. Specific directions for future research are identified.