  Many scientific collaboration networks exhibit clear community and small
world structures. However, the studies on the underlying mechanisms for the
formation and evolution of community and small world structures are still
insufficient. The mechanisms of homophily and heterophily based on scholars'
traits are two important factors for the formation of community and
inter-communal links, which may deserve further exploration. In this paper, a
multi-agent model, which is based on combinatorial effects of homophily and
heterophily, is developed to investigate the evolution of scientific
collaboration networks. The simulation results indicate that agents with
similar traits aggregate to form community by homophily, while heterophily
plays a major role in the formation of inter-communal links. The pattern of
network evolution revealed in simulations is essentially consistent with what
is observed in empirical analyses, as in both cases the giant component evolves
from a small cluster to a structure of chained-communities, and then to a small
world network with community structure. This work may provides an alternative
view on the underlying mechanisms for the formation of community and small
world structures, complementary to the mainstream view that the small-world is
generated from the combination of the structural embeddedness and structural
holes mechanisms.
